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415 lines
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<TITLE>Echomail Specification.</TITLE>
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<PRE>
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FTS-0004 EchoMail Specification
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This document is directly derived from the documentation of
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The Conference Mail System
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By
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Bob Hartman
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Sysop of FidoNet(tm) node 132/101
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(C) Copyright 1986,87, Spark Software, Inc.
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427-3 Amherst Street
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CS 2032, Suite 232
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Nashua, N.H. 03061
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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version 3.31 of 12 December, 1987.
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With Bob Hartman's kind consent, copying for the purpose of technological
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research and advancement is allowed.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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WHAT IS THE CONFERENCE MAIL SYSTEM?
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Conference Mail is a technique to permit several nodes on a
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network to share a message base, similar in concept to the
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conferences available on many of the computer services, but it is
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most closely related to the Usenet system consisting of more than
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8,000 systems world wide. All systems sharing a given conference
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see any messages entered into the conference by any of the
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participating systems. This can be implemented in such a way as
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to be totally transparent to the users of a particular node. In
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fact, they may not even be aware of the network being used to
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move their messages about from node to node! Unfortunately, this
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has its disadvantages also - most users who are not educated
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about Conference Mail do not realize the messages transmitted
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cost MANY sysops (system operators) money, not just the local
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sysop. This is an important consideration in Conference Mail and
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should not be taken lightly. In a conference with 100 systems as
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participants the cost per message can get quite high.
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The Conference Mail System is designed to operate in conjunction
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with a FidoNet compatible mail server. The currently supported
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mail servers are Fido(tm), SEAdog(tm), Opus, and Dutchie. Since
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the mail server is a prerequisite to using the Conference Mail
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System, it will be assumed you already have your mail server
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operating correctly on your system, and you are connected into
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FidoNet or a compatible network.
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HISTORY OF THE CONFERENCE MAIL SYSTEM
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In late 1985, Jeff Rush, a Fido sysop in Dallas, wanted a
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convenient means of sharing ideas with the other Dallas sysops.
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He created a system of programs he called Echomail, and the
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Dallas sysops' Conference was born.
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Within a short time sysops in other areas began hearing of this
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marvelous new gadget and Echomail took on a life of its own.
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Today, a scant year and a half later, the FidoNet public network
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boasts a myriad of conferences varying in size from the dozen-or-
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so participants in the FidoNet Technical Standards Committee
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Conference to the Sysops' Conference with several hundred
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participants. It is not uncommon for a node to carry 30 or more
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conferences and share those conferences with 10 or more nodes.
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HOW IT WORKS
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The Conference Mail System is functionally compatible with the
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original Echomail utilities. In general, the process is:
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1. A message is entered into a designated area on a FidoNet
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compatible system.
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2. This message is "Exported" along with some control information
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to each system "linked" to the conference through the originating
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system.
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3. Each of the receiving systems "Import" the message into the
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proper Conference Mail area.
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4. The receiving systems then "Export" these messages, along with
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additional control information, to each of their conference
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links.
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5. Return to step 3.
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As you can see, the method is quite simple - in general. Of
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course, following the steps literally would mean messages would
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never stop being Exported and transmitted to other systems. This
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obviously would not be desired or the network would quickly
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become overburdened. The information contained in the 'control
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information' section is used to prevent transmitting the same
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message more than once to a single system.
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CONFERENCE MAIL MESSAGE CONTROL INFORMATION
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There are five pieces of control information associated with a
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Conference Mail message. Some are optional, some are not.
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Normally this information is never entered by the person creating
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the message. The following control fields determine how
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Conference Mail is handled:
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1. Area line
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This is the first line of a conference mail message. Its
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actual appearance is:
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AREA:CONFERENCE
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Where CONFERENCE is the name of the conference. This line is
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added when a conference is being "Exported" to another
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system. It is based upon information found in the AREAS.BBS
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(configuration) File for the designated message area. This
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field is REQUIRED by the receiving system to "Import" a
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message into the correct Conference Mail area.
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2. Tear Line
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This line is near the end of a message and consists of three
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dashes (---) followed by an optional program specifier.
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This is used to show the first program used to add Echomail
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compatible control information to the message. The tear line
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generated by Conference Mail looks like:
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--- <a small product-specific banner>
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This field is optional for most Echomail compatible
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processors, and is added by the Conference Mail System to
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ensure complete compatibility. Some systems will place this
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line in the message when it is first created, but it is
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normally added when the message is first "exported."
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3. Origin line
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This line appears near the bottom of a message and gives a
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small amount of information about the system where it
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originated. It looks like:
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* Origin: The Conference Mail BBS (1:132/101)
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The " * Origin: " part of the line is a constant field.
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This is followed by the name of the system as taken from the
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AREAS.BBS file or a file named ORIGIN located in the DOS
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directory of the designated message area. The complete
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network address (1:132/101 in this case) is added by the
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program inserting the line. This field is generated at the
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same time as the tear line, and therefore may either be
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generated at the time of creation or during the first
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"export" processing. Although the Origin line is not
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required by all Echomail processors, it is added by the
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Conference Mail System to ensure complete compatibility.
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4. Seen-by Lines
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There can be many seen-by lines at the end of Conference
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Mail messages, and they are the real "meat" of the control
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information. They are used to determine the systems to
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receive the exported messages. The format of the line is:
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SEEN-BY: 132/101 113 136/601 1014/1
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The net/node numbers correspond to the net/node numbers of
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the systems having already received the message. In this way
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a message is never sent to a system twice. In a conference
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with many participants the number of seen-by lines can be
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very large. This line is added if it is not already a part
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of the message, or added to if it already exists, each time
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a message is exported to other systems. This is a REQUIRED
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field, and Conference Mail will not function correctly if
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this field is not put in place by other Echomail compatible
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programs.
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5. PATH Lines
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These are the last lines in a Conference Mail message and
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are a new addition, and therefore is not supported by all
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Echomail processors. It appears as follows:
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^aPATH: 132/101 1014/1
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Where the ^a stands for Control-A (ASCII character 1) and
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the net/nodes listed correspond to those systems having
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processed the message before it reached the current system.
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This is not the same as the seen-by lines, because those
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lines list all systems the message has been sent to, while
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the path line contains all systems having actually processed
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the message. This is not a required field, and few echomail
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processors currently support it, however it can be used
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safely with any other system, since the line(s) will be
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ignored. For a discussion on how the path line can be
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helpful, see the "Advanced Features" section of this manual.
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METHODS OF SENDING CONFERENCE MAIL
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To this point the issue of how Conference Mail is actually sent
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has been glossed over entirely. The phrase has been, "the message
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is exported to another system." What exactly does this mean?
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Well, for starters lets show what is called the "basic" setup:
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In this setup exported mail is placed into the FidoNet mail area.
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Each message exported from a Conference Mail area has one
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message generated for each receiving system. This mail is then
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sent the same as any other network mail. When Echomail was first
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created this was the only way mail could be sent.
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The "basic" method has some disadvantages. First, since Echomail
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has grown so large it is not uncommon to get 200 new messages per
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day imported into various message bases. It is also not uncommon
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for a system to be exporting messages to 4 or 5 other systems.
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Simple arithmetic shows 800-1000 messages per day would be sent
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in normal netmail! This puts a tremendous strain on any netmail
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system, not to mention transmission time and the resultant phone
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charges. When this limitation of Echomail was first noticed a lot
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of people started scratching their heads wondering what to do. If
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a solution could not be found it appeared Echomail would
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certainly overrun the capabilities of FidoNet.
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Thom Henderson (from System Enhancement Associates) came up with
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the original ARCmail program. Having previously written the ARC
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file archiving and compression program, he knew the savings
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achievable by having all of the netmail messages placed in .ARC
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format for transmission. As a byproduct, the messages no longer
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appeared in the netmail area, but were included in a file
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attached to a message (see your FidoNet mailer manual for file
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attaches). In this way the tremendous number of messages
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generated, and the phone bill problems were both solved.
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Unfortunately, ARCmail required the messages to first be placed
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into the netmail area before it could be run. In effect, it
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caused the messages to be scanned once when they were exported,
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once during the ARCmail phase, once when ARCmail was run at the
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other end to get the messages out of .ARC format, and once when
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those messages were later imported into a message base on the
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receiving system. The Conference Mail System solves this problem
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by eliminating the ARCmail program. Conference Mail builds the
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ARCmail files during Export, and unpacks them during Import. This
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way messages are exported directly to ARCmail style file
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attaches, and imported directly from ARCmail style file attaches.
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The scanning phases between importing and exporting messages are
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totally removed and processing time is proportionally reduced.
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This is now the most common method for sending Conference Mail
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between systems. The overhead involved in doing it during the
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importing and exporting phases is much less than what is involved
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if ARCmailing is not utilized. This was a primary consideration
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in the design and implementation of the Conference Mail System,
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and as a result the entire system is optimized for this type of
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use. Please refer to the Import and Export functions for
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specifics on how to use the ARCmailing feature.
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CONFERENCE TOPOLOGY
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The way in which systems link together for a particular
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conference is called the "conference topology." It is important
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to know this structure for two reasons: 1) It is important to
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have a topology which is efficient in the transfer of the
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Conference Mail messages, and 2) It is important to have a
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topology which will not cause systems to see the same messages
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more than once.
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Efficiency can be measured in a number of ways; least time
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involved for all systems to receive a message, least cost for all
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systems to receive a message, and fewest phone calls required for
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all systems to receive a message are all valid indicators of
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efficiency. Users of Echomail compatible systems have determined
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(through trial and error) the best measure of efficiency is a
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combination of all three of the measurements given above.
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Balancing the equation is not trivial, but some guidelines can be
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given:
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1. Never have two systems attempting to send Conference mail
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to each other at the same time. This results in "collisions"
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that will cause both systems to fail. To avoid this, one
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system should be responsible for polling while the other
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system is holding mail. This arrangement can alternate based
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upon various criteria, but both systems should never be
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attempting to call each other at the same time.
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2. Have nodes form "stars" for distribution of Conference
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Mail. This arrangement has several nodes all receiving their
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Conference Mail from the same system. In general the systems
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on the "outside" of the star poll the system on the
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"inside". The system on the "inside" in turn polls other
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systems to receive the Conference Mail that is being passed
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on to the "outside" systems.
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3. Utilize fully connected polygons with a few vertices.
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Nodes can be connected in a triangle (A sends to B and C, B
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sends to A and C, C sends to A and B) or a fully connected
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square (all corners of the square send to all of the other
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corners). This method is useful for getting Conference Mail
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messages to each node as quickly as possible.
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All of these efficiency guidelines have to be tempered with the
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guidelines dealing with keeping duplicate messages from being
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exported. Duplicates will occur in any topology that forms a
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closed polygon that is not fully connected. Take for example the
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following configuration:
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A ----- B
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C ----- D
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This square is a closed polygon that is not fully connected. It
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is capable of generating duplicates as follows:
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1. A message is entered on node A.
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2. Node A exports the message to node B and node C placing
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the seen-by for A, B, and C in the message as it does so.
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3. Node B sees that node D is not listed in the seen-by and
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exports the message to node D.
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4. Node C sees that node D is not listed in the seen-by and
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exports the message to node D.
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At this point node D has received the same message twice - a
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duplicate was generated. Normally a "dup-ring" will not be as
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simple as a square. Generally it will be caused by a system on
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one end of a long chain accidentally connecting to a system on
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the other end of the chain. This causes the two ends of the chain
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to become connected, forming a polygon.
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In FidoNet this problem is reduced somewhat by having "Regional
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Echomail Coordinators" (RECS) that try to keep track of Echomail
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connections within their regions of the world. A further rule
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which is followed is that only the RECS are allowed to make
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inter-regional connections for the larger conferences. In return,
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the RECS have established a very efficient topology which gets
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messages from coast to coast, and onto over 200 systems in less
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than 24 hours. If no one were willing to follow the rules, then
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this system would collapse, but due to the excellent efficiency
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it has remained intact for over a year.
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Why a PATH line?
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As was previously mentioned, the PATH line is a new concept in
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Echomail. It stores the net/node numbers of each system having
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actually processed a message. This information is useful in
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correcting the biggest problem encountered by nodes running an
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Echomail compatible system - the problem of finding the cause of
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duplicate messages. How does the PATH line help solve this
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problem? Take the following path line as an example:
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^aPATH: 107/6 107/312 132/101
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This shows the message was processed by system 107/6 and
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transferred to system 107/312. It further shows system 107/312
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transferred the message to 132/101, and 132/101 processed it
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again. Now take the following path line as the example:
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^aPATH: 107/6 107/312 107/528 107/312 132/101
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This shows the message having been processed by node 107/312 on
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more than one occasion. Based upon the earlier description of the
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'information control' fields in Echomail messages, this clearly
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is an error in processing (see the section entitled "How it
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Works"). This further shows node 107/528 as the node which
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apparently processed the message incorrectly. In this case the
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path line can be used to quickly locate the source of duplicate
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messages.
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In a conference with many participants it becomes almost
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impossible to determine the exact topology used. In these cases
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the use of the path line can help a coordinator of the conference
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track any possible breakdowns in the overall topology, while not
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substantially increasing the amount of information transmitted.
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Having this small amount of information added to the end of each
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message pays for itself very quickly when it can be used to help
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detect a topology problem causing duplicate messages to be
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transmitted to each system.
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-30-
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</PRE>
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