Subj : linked [1] To : Gordon Lewicky From : Frank Vest Date : Tue Dec 17 2002 09:38 am On (16 Dec 02) Gordon Lewicky wrote to Frank Vest... Hello Gordon, GL> Oh-oh... more rambling thoughts! ;) :-) FV> I always try to look towards the future. I can visualize a day when FV> the only thing PSTN (note the change from POTS) will be Nodes that run FV> a BBS only... no mailer on PSTN. GL> I dunno about this not needing PSTN for transport. Maybe in 100 GL> years. Maybe. I can only speak of my limited knowledge of Zone 1. It seems like, for the most part, the only Fidonet mail that is transferred via modem (POTS) is within Nets. Even there, that is changing. With the phone system changing around in my area, many Nodes would probably be long distance to other Nodes and not able to get Fidonet mail without the IP transfers. As a weird example that dates back to my first becoming a Node in Fidonet's Net124; McKinney, Texas is about 30 miles from Dallas. Dallas is the "center" of Net124. When I moved to McKinney, the phone service offered a "local" number that was good for Mckinney and "surrounding" towns. Dallas wasn't one of the surrounding towns. In fact, there were only a handful of the over 100 Nodes in Net124 that I could call locally. I was fortunate that my Hub had a "metro" number (that cost him extra) and could reach Dallas without a LD charge. When my Hub left Fidonet, I took the Hub position and got a "metro" line to be able to do that... besides, I wanted to be able to have callers from more than just McKinney. Even with the "metro" line, there are some places in the Net124 area that I can't reach via POTS without LD charges. Had I had the IP stuff, I could have used the Internet to do the mail. The Internet was available, but I didn't have it. As time moved forward, the phone company has now added more area codes and stuff to the area. My little town has at least two area codes. I have no idea anymore of which phone numbers are LD and which are local. If I had to do all the mail via dial-up, I really don't know how I would get the translation table right for my mailer. My next door neighbor could have a different area code than me, but be a local call. Another person could have the same area code and be LD. :/ Anyway, as we move forward, I see it fast coming that Fidonet mail will be totally IP transferred. There might be a few PSTN transfers, but that will be rare and only within Nets or as a "fall back" for emergency. I have a POTS link with my Hub, but most of the mail goes IP. I think this is becoming more the norm than the exception. GL> Yes, we are switching over to more and more inet bbs's and GL> transport within our network. Hell, I'll be adding a telnet node GL> soon. But I can't really envision my bbs going inet only within at GL> least the next 10 years or more, and more then likely, as long as GL> I have a bbs, it will be dial-up as well. :) Same here, but a BBS is a little different than Fidonet mail. :-) I have a long and drawn out vision of BBSs as well... I'll spare you the stuff for now. :-) GL> Thing is, I believe we'll keep PSTN transport for quite awhile, GL> even if only for a backup in the more advanced countries, and it GL> will surely have a longer lifetime in those countries which don't GL> advance to domestic inet capabilities as fast as others. Agreed. Although the other countries are catching up fast. Some might even be ahead of Z1. ;-) GL> Then there is always the real threat of a massive inet disruption, GL> so the PSTN transport should always be there as the backup, since GL> I just can't see us sitting and twiddling our thumbs if we do <..> GL> That's just our collective nature. Could you imagine a month or a GL> couple of weeks with no mail? I think you'll find about 5000 GL> people doing whatever it takes to keep from going into echo GL> withdrawal shock. :) "No mail!" "There's been no mail for two days!!" "GOD!" "PLEASE!!" "I gotta have my mail!!!" :-) And you thought you rambled! :) Regards, Frank http://pages.sbcglobal.net/flv http://biseonline.com/r19 .... BBS's are for the best, Inet is for the rest. --- PPoint 3.01 * Origin: Holy Cow! I'm A Point!! (1:124/6308.1) .