Fidonet The story of one point (2010 year)

Foreword

This article does not pretend to become a guide to action, but only tells the story of how an individual Internet user connected to the Fidonet network in (scary to imagine) 2010.



Those who have already reached the window “Write a comment” in order to leave something like “Fedo - RIP” for posterity, I recommend to take three deep breaths and read this text to the end.

')

History of my interest in the Fidonet network (you can safely skip)

I first heard about Fido in 2002 from someone I knew. At that time, I was the proud owner of a “I-you-blind-from-that-what-was-and-what-not-was-something-bought-up” computer with dial-up Internet access. Everything that was necessary for the young growing up body of chats, pornography, jokes by that time was available in these of your Internet and to understand the connection to the free, but this incomprehensible Fidonet had no desire.



In 2003, in the best traditions of the SU.TORMOZ ehoconference, 4 years after publication, I read the book by Alex Exler, The Programmer's Bride's Notes, about the boom fidoshnik Seryoga and his lady-heart Irina. The creation abounded with a healthy fidosh humor, and Fidonet himself was presented exactly as a Network of friends with all that follows. :) I decided to ask about the connectivity, but at that time there were no nodes in the glorious city of Troitsk, Moscow Region. Perhaps I was looking bad.



Around the same time, not the rainbow article of mindw0rk “20 kilobytes about Fidonet” appeared in the magazine “Hacker ” by analogy with the famous article by Nick Filimonov . Its general meaning was as follows: "How good it was before and how everything is rotten now." The article produced the expected demotiviruyuschiy effect and I forgot about the Network of friends for a long 6 years.

How did it happen ...

During this time I managed to finish university and even start working in my specialty. This time the catalyst of interest was the notorious resource of Lurkmorie, where, in addition to other crap, Fidonet's memes were published. Having gone through the Internet for sites that will help me connect to Fido, I came across a small neat site site 2: 5020/2140 . Unlike other resources, the connection process was described in sufficient detail and the only thing that was required of the end user was to change a few lines in the configuration file of the FidoIP package, which was proposed as a basic tool for working with Fido.

This mysterious Fidonet

I got in touch with boss Sergey and chose a favorite point number from the unoccupied ones. After sending test messages to the local ehokonferenitsiyu (this is such an analogue of Usenet-conferences) and netmail (analogue of e-mail), I could consider myself a full fidoshnik.



Then I stupid week and a half. In my opinion, here lies the first pitfall for most beginners. It is necessary to find the strength not to send everything to hell (because everything is so simple on the Internet!), But to spend some time getting to know Fido.



I faced three problems:

1. The inconvenience (for me personally) of the FidoIP package (specifically, the GoldEd editor did not suit it).
2. A huge amount of technical information and all sorts of rules (sometimes archaic).
3. Search live echoconferences.

Problem number 1

I understand that nostalgia is great, and if at the proper level to master GoldEd , you do not want to use anything else, but this editor did not suit me categorically. First, until you remember all the hotkeys, the job comes down to constant communication with the FAQ. Secondly: a terminal window that constantly hangs over documents (I work as a lawyer) is not too similar to a standard office application, and I didn’t want to get into the terminal’s question about what I was constantly doing in the terminal.



Golded-NSF





A little googling, I chose the HellEd editor. Despite some frivolousness of the interface, after removing the “bows and ryushechek” it becomes quite suitable for use.



Helled





Pros:

• fully customizable graphical user interface (.Net 2.0) and Russification;
• magnificent work with color selection of quotations, origins, kladzhi, etc .;
• compatibility with GoldEd hotkeys.

Minuses:

• the program does not develop, the latest version dates back to 2008;
• compared to other programs, it seriously slows down;
• contains a large amount of garbage in the distribution.

Problem number 2

At first glance, all the rules of echo-conferencing are different, but it is enough to carefully read the “rules” of two or three, and the rest can be just a quick glance. Plus, before posting something, it is better to watch the style and manner of communication of its participants for a couple of days.

In addition, it would be useful to read the article mentioned earlier by Nick Filimonov “64 kilobytes of Fidonet” .



Problem number 3

Now the search for living oh has become a problem. If earlier it was enough to subscribe to 3-4 popular ehoconferences in order to fully occupy your free time, now you need to find popular ehi first.



Here I will indicate the resources that I used:



Internet access statistics:

http://www.shodtech.net/fidonet/readfidoecho

http://www.fido-online.com/x/_-0?El?5&0



Statistics in echo-conferencing (Fido):

2356.ROBOTS and TITANIC.OFFICIAL



Search for live eh for nostalgic:

We enter in the terminal: telnet bbs.rndfido.net and study the fullness of the telnet bbs.rndfido.net mean male tear:

"He was a normal fidoshnik, became a simple bbs-nickname"

I want to note that the boss Sergey Poziturin is trying to make the life of simple points easier and more convenient. Recently, he has opened access to ehokonferentsiyami via nntp.



Now points can read and write to fidoshka through standard newsreaders. For me, this is especially important since it became possible to use Claws-Mail on my Nokia N810 tablet for this purpose.



Claws-mail (Nokia N810)









So it looks on a desktop computer with Windows XP:



Mozilla Thunderbird 3





Outlook Express 6 with Fidolook Add-in

Instead of conclusion

I have been in Fido for a couple of months, but I want to say the following:

• there are a lot of smart and interesting people;
• the so-called “shkolota” is completely absent;
• the rumors and the coming of the Great and Hypertext are seriously exaggerated, at least within the network itself “greatness and hypertextuality” is regarded more as a joke;
• Fidonet will live his special life for many more years. I saw the Enthusiasts alive with a capital letter and I do not doubt it at all.

Whereupon, let me leave.

Yours, Yours 2: 5020 / 2140.12



PS: easy_john wrote a wonderful article “A little about the development of communication in the network,” in which he pointed out the differences between fidonet and usenet-conferences from modern forums and blogs, and also offered his version of the further development of communication in networks.



PSS: Sergey Poziturin 2: 5020/2140 asked all who applied to him for a point address to find themselves in this list: vp.propush.ru/index.php?q=node/46 Applications of those who applied to him before 10 got there Morning 04/22/2010. He will answer all. Wait, please.