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The BBS Corner
The Fidonet BBS Network

The following is an overview on the Fidonet BBS Network. It is the largest worldwide message forum, file transfer and Inter-BBS gaming network.

Overview on Fidonet

The Fidonet BBS Network system is the world's largest Bulletin Board System (BBS) mail network. This is a non-profit network is operated solely by its participating members, mainly BBS System Operators who run their BBS as a hobby. Originally, the network used a structure via the regular dial-up telephone network where one node can dial any other node in the Fidonet network to transfer "packets" of Electronic Mail, Message Forums, Shareware Files, or Inter-BBS door game data. In more recent years, this has been amended to use the Internet with special software to allow systems to transfer these packets via Internet E-mail, Telnet and File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Some even utilize satellite retrieval systems. All to keep the mail flowing all over the world. Some hobby isn't it?

There are thousands of nodes (members) in Fidonet worldwide. The glue that binds Fidonet into a network is its mutually agreed to network management and topology (structure). A file named NODELIST.xxx contains all the information (structure & topology) required to communicate in the network. This file serves at the network's "phone book". It is updated on a weekly basis.

Network Structure

The topology of Fidonet looks like this: There are 6 Zones in Fidonet. Each Zone is broken down into Regions. The Regions are broken down into Nets. Nets are composed of Nodes. These nodes are primarily Bulletin Board Systems (BBS).

The Zones are geographical in nature:

1 = North America (United States of America and Canada)
2 = Europe, Russia and former Soviet Union countries
3 = Oceanic (Australia and New Zealand)
4 = Latin America
5 = Africa
6 = Asia

Each node has a unique address which consists of three parts: Zone, Net, and Node. In text form the address is expressed as "Zone:Net/Node". An example of this would be my system. It's Fidonet address is 1:275/89 (Zone 1 : Net 275 / Node 89). Notice that Region numbers are not included in the address. Regions were created as the network grew and needed to be further broken down to facilitate better mail flow.

Nodes may have one or more points. Points are users who get mail from a node (their "boss"). That way they can read and write messages off-line, saving time and money. The point address of the Boss is "0" (1:275/89.0 in my case), however the ".0" is usually omitted from the address. Point systems are not contained in the Nodelist.XXX. Their information is maintained in a "Local Phone Book" by their Boss Node. Therefore they cannot be contacted directly. These systems area contacted through their Boss systems. An example of a point address off of my system would be 1:275/89.10.

Though preferred, it is not required that a node belong to a Net. Nodes may request for an Independent Node status. Such systems are found at the regional level. The most common instance of Independent Systems are those system located in areas where there is no Net established.

Echomail

The Echomail concept started with a series of programs by Jeff Rush. Echomail is the heart of Fidonet. There is a backbone, or pool, of conference areas that are distributed throughout Fidonet. Nodes (the end user) are allowed to select the conference areas that are of interest to them. Most of these conferences can be further made available on the Nodes Bulletin Board System (BBS) for the callers to participate in. With thousands of nodes in Fidonet coupled with the fact that many of these systems are running BBSes with countless numbers of callers logging in to read and post messages adds up to a lot of mail traffic being moved all over the world on a daily basis.

There are currently several hundered conference (message forum) areas. The topic of these conferences range from those being highly technical to those which are non-specific (Open forum), and everything in-between.

A directory of the Echomail conferences is available in a file called FIDONET.NA and is released every two weeks.

File Distribution

As with the "pool" of message bases distributed within the network a common pool of file distribution areas was created. This system work much the same way that echo mail system works. Nodes join in area that are of interest to them. As files are moved through the system in these categories the nodes receive the files in the areas that they have joined. An example of this might be a C++ programming area. Once linked the node would receive all the files that were moving through the network under that category/area. These files might be programming libraries, shareware compilers, editors, how-to texts, etc.

A directory of the File Distribution conferences is available in a file called FILEBONE.NA and is released every two weeks

E-Mail

Fidonet's version of E-mail is called NetMail. The originator sends a message directly to the recipient. The Originator can elect to route the message via a Hub or Host routing system which uses the network to get the mail from the originator to the recipient. Routing reduces cost but increases the amount of time it takes for a message to get from point "A" to point "B".

Fidonet Mail Tossing Software

Most BBS packages do not directly support Fidonet. Instead they rely upon third-party programs to perform the compilation and decompilation of Fidonet message "packets" into a format that BBS systems can use. There are many out there. Two of the most popular are Intermail and FrontDoor. More information can be found on the BBS Utilities page of The BBS Corner.

Fidonet Packet Transfer Via the Internet

As mentioned above, the traditional Fidonet messaging system used to use the dial-up telephone network to distribute Fidonet packets. Many times this was done with long-distance telephone calls (and costing a considerable fortune). With the Internet, people can now transfer these packets as easily as sending an E-mail or uploading and downloading a file. There are several programs that are available. One of the most popular ones is called Trans-X. More information can be found on the BBS Utilities page of The BBS Corner.

Other Fidonet Compatible BBS Networks

Fidonet is not the only BBS related network that uses this technology. There are many BBS networks that use FTN (Fidonet Technology Network) protocols for their own specialized networks. The BBS Corner has a large list of FTN style networks as well as other proprietary networks. Check out the BBS Networks page for a complete listing.

In A Nutshell

There is much more to Fidonet than what has been presented more. It's a community of people that work together to make it all happen. People who are very diverse and dedicated towards a common goal. These people dedicate a consider amount of their time, energy, and computing resources.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and in the process learn a little about this Network. If you think you would like to become a member you can contact a Fidonet system in your area.

Copyright 2006 Diamond Mine Online - Fredericksburg, VA
Site Created April 1996. Page last modified January 1, 2006
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