      F I D O N E W S         Volume 16, Number 06         8 February 1999
     +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
     |  The newsletter of the     |   ISSN 1198-4589 Published by:        |
     |    FidoNet community       |   "FidoNews"                          |
     |          _                 |        +27-41-515-913    [5:5/23]     |
     |         /  \               |                                       |
     |        /|oo \              |                                       |
     |       (_|  /_)             |                                       |
     |        _`@/_ \    _        |                                       |
     |       |     | \   \\       |   Editor:                             |
     |       | (*) |  \   ))      |        Henk Wolsink    5:7104/2       |
     |       |__U__| /  \//       |                                       |
     |        _//|| _\   /        |                                       |
     |       (_/(_|(____/         |                                       |
     |             (jm)           |   Newspapers should have no friends.  |
     |                            |                    -- JOSEPH PULITZER |
     +----------------------------+---------------------------------------+
     |             Submission address: FidoNews Editor 5:5/23             |
     +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
     |  MORE addresses:                                                   |
     |                                                                    |
     |    submissions=> editor@fidonews.org                               |
     |                  hwolsink@catpe.alt.za                             |
     +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
     |    For  information,   copyrights,   article   submissions,        |
     |    obtaining copies of FidoNews or the internet gateway FAQ        |
     |    please refer to the end of this file.                           |
     +--------------------------------------------------------------------+


                        Table of Contents
     1. EDITORIAL  ................................................  1
     2. RETRACTIONS  ..............................................  2
        Grunged Echomail Deleted - Retraction  ....................  2
     3. ARTICLES  .................................................  3
        What's Not Happening - Broken Backbone  ...................  3
     4. NOTICES  ..................................................  6
     5. FIDONET BY INTERNET  ......................................  7
     6. FIDONEWS INFORMATION  ..................................... 11
     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 1                    8 Feb 1999


     =================================================================
                                 EDITORIAL
     =================================================================

     Greetings,

     Whats happening with the routing of mail within Zone 1?  Are the
     problems solved? ;-)

     Had one heck of a week, with work and more work.  It's good for the
     pocket I hear you say?  Nope, the taxman takes nearly half.

     Anyway, there is going to be another very busy week ahead, so please
     excuse the once again short note from me. ;-(

     Enjoy,

     -----------------------------------------------------------------

     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 2                    8 Feb 1999


     =================================================================
                                RETRACTIONS
     =================================================================


     Grunged Echomail Deleted - Retraction

                           Grunged Echomail Deleted
                         Retraction by Douglas Myers
                         1:279/720, doug@mdtnbbs.com

     Last week, I submitted an article in the name of Roy Tellason
     entitled "Grunged Echomail Deleted."  This was originally sent to me
     netmail by Roy, and was intended only for my information, not for
     publication.  I misread the intent of his netmail:  he had asked of
     me information on contacting FIDONEWS, and I took this as a request
     to submit the article for him.  He has since informed me that he
     preferred to work out the complaint more quietly, and was chagrined
     that I jumped the gun on publication.

     I'd like to publicly apologize to Roy, who's confidence I violated,
     and to John Souvestre, who has enough trouble right now that he
     doesn't need any agitation from this corner.  I'd further like to
     congratulate these two gentlemen for making the effort to work
     things out without a lot of fuss, thus bucking the trend here on
     FightOnet.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------

     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 3                    8 Feb 1999


     =================================================================
                                 ARTICLES
     =================================================================


     What's Not Happening - Broken Backbone

          .-- -- -- -- -- -- WHAT'S NOT HAPPENING -- -- -- -- -- --.
          | There isn't always something happening on Fidonet, but |
          | there's always something which isn't happening.  This  |
          | column is dedicated to the lost causes which make Fido |
          | what it isn't today.  Published semi-occasionally...   |
          `-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --'

                               BROKEN BACKBONE
                  Douglas Myers, 1:270/720, doug@mdtnbbs.com

     After George Peace resigned as zone hub and disconnected from John
     Souvestre (for echomail, anyway), several participants in the
     BACKBONE echo pronounced the North American Backbone "broken."  It's
     been hard to detect at this node - echomail has been coming in and
     going out at a seemingly undiminished rate, and all the echomail
     here flows through George's system.

     As a confirmed echomail junkie, I've attempted to follow the bloated
     BACKBONE echomail conference to get some idea as to what's going on.
     It's somewhat like panning for gold in the local Susquehanna River -
     I need to push through a lot of mud and debris to uncover a rare
     nugget.  Some nuggets I've uncovered:

     - George is still an ZHUB, but he's no longer a NAB ZHUB.  The main
     distinction between the two is that a ZHUB merely moves the mail,
     but NAB ZHUBS take on other obligations being revealed gradually by
     John Souvestre.  The only solid information I can offer at this
     point is that NAB ZHUBS follow published routing charts (most of the
     time) to move netmail.

     - Of the major mail movers, George and John don't want to work
     together, Bob and John don't want to work together, and Ken wishes
     everyone would just get along.

     - Up until recently, George retained his connections to Bob Seaborn
     and Ken Wilson and continued to supply all his downlinks with
     echomail, with no apparant loss of mail.  However, dupes started
     appearing on John Souvestre's system, caused by the fact that mail
     sent through George's system no longer contained John's node number
     in the seen-by lines.  This caused the tossing software at Bob's and
     Ken's system to BOTH pack echomail messages for John.  As nearly as
     I can tell from the conversation, dupe detectors at John's system
     prevented these duplicates from flowing to his downlinks.  George
     has since relinked echomail to John's system, presumably to prevent
     the duplicate generation which results if he doesn't.

     The BACBONE isn't broken yet, but it seems like a marriage in
     trouble.  The trial seperation didn't work out as the partners found
     that they have to work together, but they still haven't worked out a
     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 4                    8 Feb 1999


     reconciliation.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------

     Hello,

     If you haven't yet heard of Fast Engines, Inc. or Fast.Serv, wel
     hello, hello. Fast.Serv is the Web server plug-in that turbo charges
     Web performance.
     Fast.Serv has been be praised and welcomed with open arms in the
     booming Web technology arena. Companies such as Morgan Stanley, The
     Weather Channel, CNNfn, The Vanguard Group, Hewlett Packard, BBC and
     many more are implementing Fast.Serv to keep up with their ever
     increasing demands for speed and performance on their Web sites. And
     as the Worldwide Web continues to grow Fast Engines, Inc. will
     continue to provide effective, efficient and eloquent solutions for
     Web speed to the Web technology community.

     As a respected member of high tech press, I am sending you a
     pre-release of a press release from Government Securities Clearance
     Corporation regarding their success and implementation of Fast.Serv.
     The release is scheduled for distribution by PRNewswire on February
     3rd, 1999.

     Fast.Serv is an amazingly versatile product due in part to being based
     on the open standard protocol FastCGI. You may have read Jonathan
     Roy's article in Web Review
     (http://webreview.com/wr/pub/98/12/04/feature/index.html)
     last month describing the benefits of FastCGI over CGI. Fast.Serv is
     now available for both Netscape and Microsoft Web servers with
     versions for Apache and O'Reilly servers on the way. It also runs on
     all Unix platforms as well as Windows NT. For more information
     regarding Fast.Serv please visit Fast Engines' site at
     http://www.fastengines.com.

     I am looking forward to discussing Fast.Serv with you. Please contact
     me by email (mailto: roz@fastengines.com) or telephone 617 491-3333
     with the best way and time to reach you.

     Best Regards,

     Roz Chapman
     Director of Communications
     Fast Engines, Inc.
     Tel 617 491-3333
     Fax 617 491-9933

     For Immediate Release

     Subject:        Government Securities Clearance Corporation implements
                     Fast Engines Inc.'s Fast.Serv FastCGI software to
                     ensure lightning fast Web site response.

     Contact:        Alan L. Kosow, Fast Engines, Inc., 617-491-3333 /
                     alan@fastengines.com

     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 5                    8 Feb 1999


     NEW YORK, NY, February 3, 1999 -- Government Securities Clearance
     Corporation (GSCC) today announced that it will be utilizing Fast
     Engines' Fast.Serv FastCGI software product to enhance its Web server
     performance.

     "GSCC is moving rapidly to deliver information using Web technology to
     its participant community, which consists of approximately 100 of the
     major Wall Street firms.  Due to the anticipated high volume and
     complexityof these Web based information requests, GSCC needed to
     provide its users with rapid, reliable connections and information."
     Said Sal Matera, a Vice President at GSCC.

     "The Fast.Serv product gives GSCC the tools it needs to be successful
     in developing Web based application software and frameworks.  Unlike
     expensive application servers, Fast.Serv provides the capability to
     leverage on existing software and hardware investment and expertise.
     The product allows for the initialization and establishment of
     persistent connections to databases and Corba servers BEFORE the
     client accesses our site.  The result is that we are able to turn page
     requests around on our Digital Alpha servers very quickly.  Fast.Serv
     was the right choice for the development process and fits well into
     GSCC's technology infrastructure." Continued Matera.

     About GSCC
     GSCC is the leading provider of centralized trade comparison, netting,
     in the world's largest marketplace.  In 1998, GSCC processed more than
     $200 trillion in U.S. Government securities.  It continually seeks to
     provide the latest technological advances to its Participants without
     compromising the stability and reliability of its systems.

     About Fast Engines, Inc.
     Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fast Engines is the leader
     in developing and marketing high performance middleware tools for
     accelerating Web based applications. Fast Engines' Fast.Serv product
     for Netscape [NASDAQ:NS CP] and Microsoft [NASDAQ:MSFT] servers is
     being used by dozens of high traffic Web sites within Fortune 500
     companies including The New York Times [NYSE:NYT], Morgan Stanley
     [NYSE:MWD], Lockheed Martin [NYSE:LMT], A.G. Edwards [NYSE:AGE], and
     Ziff Davis [NYSE:ZD]. For more information see the Fast Engines
     homepage at http://www.fastengines.com.


     -----------------------------------------------------------------

     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 6                    8 Feb 1999


     =================================================================
                                  NOTICES
     =================================================================

                       Future History

       16 Feb 1999
          13th Anniversary of the introduction of EchoMail by Jeff Rush.

       12 May 1999
          12th Anniversary of Fido Operations in Zone 4;
          10th Anniversary of the creation of FidoNet Zone 4.

       24 Jul 1999
          XIII Pan American Games [through 8 Aug 99].

        9 Jun 1999
          Tenth Anniversary of the adoption of FidoNet Policy 4.07.

       10 Sep 1999
          10th anniversary of Zone 5 operations.

       26 Oct 1999
          Thirty years from release Abbey Road album by the Beatles.

       31 Dec 1999
          Hogmanay, Scotland. The New Year that can't be missed.

        1 Jan 2000
          The 20th Century, C.E., is still taking place thru 31 Dec.

        1 Jun 2000
          EXPO 2000 World Exposition in Hannover (Germany) opens.

       15 Sep 2000
          Sydney (Australia) Summer Olympiad opens.

       21 Sep 2000
          10 years of FidoNet in +7 (xUSSR)

        1 Jan 2001
          This is the actual start of the new millennium, C.E.

       -- If YOU have something which you would like to see in this
             Future History, please send a note to the FidoNews Editor.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------

     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 7                    8 Feb 1999


     =================================================================
                            FIDONET BY INTERNET
     =================================================================

     This is a list of all FidoNet-related sites reported to the
     FidoNews Editor as of this issue; see the notice at the end.

     FidoNet:

     Homepage    http://www.fidonet.org
     FidoNews    http://www.fidonews.org             [HTML]
                 http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html  [ASCII]
     WWW sources http://travel.to/fidonet/
     FTSC page   http://www.ftsc.org/
     Echomail    [pending]
     General     http://owls.com/~jerrys/fidonet.html
                 http://www.nrgsys.com/orb/foti
     List servers:
                 http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/fidonet-discussion

     ============

     Zone 1:       http://www.z1.fidonet.org

       Region 10:  http://www.psnw.com/~net205/region10.html

       Region 11:  http://oeonline.com/~garyg/region11/

       Region 13:

         Net 264:  http://www.net264.org/r13.htm

       Region 14:

         Net 282:  http://www.rxn.com/~net282/

       Region 17:  http://www.nwstar.com/~region17/

       Region 18:  http://techshop.pdn.net/fido/

       Region 19:  http://www.compconn.net/r19

     Zone 1 Elist  http://www.baltimoremd.com/elist/

     Not sure where the following should be placed:

                   http://www.angelfire.com/biz/snwvlly/fido.html

     ============

     Zone 2:       http://www.z2.fidonet.org

     ZEC2:
     Zone 2 Elist: http://www.fbone.ch/echolist/

       Region 20:  http://www.fidonet.pp.se (in Swedish)
     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 8                    8 Feb 1999


       Region 23:  http://www.fido.dk (in Danish)

       Region 24:  http://www.swb.de/personal/flop/gatebau.html (German)
         Fido-IP:  http://home.nrh.de/~lbehet/fido (English/German)

       Region 25:  http://www.bsnet.co.uk/net2502/net/

        Region 26: http://www.nemesis.ie
           REC 26: http://www.nrgsys.com/orb

       Region 27:  http://telematique.org/ft/r27.htm

       Region 29:  http://www.rtfm.be/fidonet/  (French)

       Region 30:  http://www.fidonet.ch  (German)

       Region 33:  http://www.fidoitalia.net (Italian)

       Region 34:  http://www.pobox.com/cnb/r34.htm  (Spanish)
           REC34:  http://pobox.com/~chr

       Region 36:  http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7207/

       Region 38:  http://public.st.carnet.hr/~blagi/bbs/adriam.html

       Region 41:  http://www.fidonet.gr (Greek/English)

       Region 42:  http://www.fido.cz

       Region 48:  http://www.fidonet.org.pl

       Region 50:  http://www.fido7.com/  (Russian)
        Net 5010:  http://fido.tu-chel.ac.ru/  (Russian)
        Net 5015:  http://www.fido.nnov.ru/  (Russian)
        Net 5030:  http://kenga.ru/fido/  (Russian & English)
        Net 5073:  http://people.weekend.ru/soa/  (Russian)

     ============

     Zone 3:       http://www.z3.fidonet.org

     ============

     Zone 4:

       Region 90:  http://visitweb.com/fidonet
         Net 903:  http://www.playagrande.com/refugio
         Net 904:  http://members.tripod.com/~net904 (Spanish)

     ============

     Zone 5:       http://www.eastcape.co.za/fidonet/index.htm

     ============

     Zone 6:       http://www.z6.fidonet.org
     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 9                    8 Feb 1999


       Region 65:  http://www.cfido.com/fidonet/cfidochina.html (Chinese)

     ============

     Pages listed above are as submitted to the FidoNews Editor,
     and generally reflect Zone and Regional Web Page sites.  If
     no Regional site is submitted, the first Network page from
     that Region is used in its place.  Generally, Regional pages
     should list access points to all Networks within the Region.

     TCP/IP accessible node access information should be submitted
     to the FidoNews Editor for inclusion in their Region or Zone.

                      -----------oOo-------------

                       Fidonet Via Internet Hubs

     Node#      | Operator          | Facilities (*) | Speed | Basic Rate
     -----------+-------------------+----------------+-------+------------
     1:12/12    | Ken Wilson        | FTP            | T1    | $24mo.
     1:13/25    | Jim Balcom        | FTP            | 56k   | $20mo.
     1:106/1    | Matt Bedynek      | FTP,VMoT,UUE   | 64k   | $5/$15mo.
     1:106/6018 | Lawrence Garvin   | FTP,VMoT       | 64k   | $5/mo.
     1:107/451  | Andy Knifel       | FTP, VMoT, UUE | 33.6  | n/c
     1:124/7008 | Ben Hamilton      | FTP,VMoT,UUE   | 64k   | $10/$20mo.
     1:140/12   | Bob Seaborn       | FTP            | T1    | $5/$20
     1:270/101  | George Peace      | FTP            | T1    | $30mo.
     1:271/140  | Tom Barstow       | UUE            | T1    | n/c
     1:275/1    | Joshua Ecklund    | UUE            | 28.8  | $10/yr.
     1:280/169  | Brian Greenstreet | FTP            | 33.6  | $2mo.
     1:2401/305 | Peter Rocca       | FTP,UUE        | T1    | unkn
     1:2424/10  | Alec Grynspan     | FTP,UUE        | T1    | n/c
     1:2604/104 | Jim Mclaughlin    | FTP,VMoT,UUE   | 33.6  | $1mo.
     1:2624/306 | D. Calafrancesco  | VMoT           | 33.6  | $15yr.
     1:345/0    | Todd Cochrane     | FTP            | T1    | n/c
     1:346/250  | Aran Spence       | FTP,UUE        | T1    | $10mo.
     1:396/45   | Marc Lewis        | UUE            | 33.6  | $26/yr.
     1:3651/9   | Jerry Gause       | FTP,VMoT       | 33.6  | $3/$6
     1:396/1    | John Souvestre    | FTP,VMoT       | T1    | $15mo.
     2:33/505   | Mario Mure        | VMoT,UUE       | 64k   | n/c
     2:254/175  | Alex Kemp         | UUE            | 56k   | n/c
     2:284/800  | Jeroen VanDeLeur  | FTP,UUE        | 64k   | n/c
     2:335/610  | Gino Lucrezi      | UUE            | 33.6  | n/c
     2:469/84   | Max Masyutin      | VMoT           | 256k  | n/c
     2:2411/413 | Dennis Dittrich   | UUE            | 64k   | n/c
     2:2474/275 | Christian Emig    | UUE            | 64k   | unkn
     3:633/260  | Malcolm Miles     | FTP            | 33.6  | n/c
     4:905/100  | Fabian Gervan     | VMoT, UUE      | ???   | n/c
     5:7104/2   | Henk Wolsink      | FTP            | 28.8  | n/c
     --
     * FTP  = Internet File Transfer Protocol
     * VMoT = Virtual Mailer over Telnet (various)
     * UUE  = uuencode<->email type transfers
     [I'm only cataloging transfer methods, eg, ftp, email, telnet.
     Specific programs using these protocols are no longer being listed.
     Contact the system operators for details of which programs they have
     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 10                   8 Feb 1999


     available.]

     Compiled by C. Ingersoll, 1:2623/71, (609)814-1978, fbn@dandy.net
     Posted on the 1st of every month in FN_SYSOP, R13SYSOP and Fidonews.

     -----------------------------------------------------------------

     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 11                   8 Feb 1999


     =================================================================
                           FIDONEWS INFORMATION
     =================================================================


      ------- FIDONEWS MASTHEAD AND CONTACT INFORMATION -------

       Editor: Henk Wolsink

       Editors Emeritii: Tom Jennings, Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell,
                         Vince Perriello, Tim Pozar, Sylvia Maxwell,
                         Donald Tees, Christopher Baker, Zorch Frezberg

       "FidoNews Editor"
           FidoNet  5:5/23
           BBS  +27-41-515-913,  2400/9600/V.34/V.90

        more addresses:
           Henk Wolsink -- 5:7104/2,    hwolsink@catpe.alt.za

        (Postal Service mailing address)
           FidoNews Editor
           P.O. Box 12325
           Port Elizabeth,
           6006
           South Africa

         ------------------------------------------------------

     FidoNews is published weekly by and for the members of the FIDONET
     INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR ELECTRONIC MAIL system.  It is a compilation
     of individual articles contributed by their authors or their
     authorized agents.  The contribution of articles to this compilation
     does not diminish the rights of the authors.  OPINIONS EXPRESSED in
     these articles ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS and not necessarily those of
     FidoNews and/or the Editor.

     Authors retain copyright on individual works; otherwise FidoNews is
     Copyright (C) 1999 Henk Wolsink.  All rights reserved.  Duplication
     and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only.  For
     use in other circumstances, please contact the original authors, or
     the Editor.

                             =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=

     OBTAINING COPIES: The most recent issue of FidoNews in electronic
     form may be obtained from the FidoNews Editor via manual download or
     file-request, or from various sites in the FidoNet and Internet.
     PRINTED COPIES may be obtained by sending SASE to the above postal
     address.  File-request FIDONEWS for the current Issue.  File-request
     FNEWS for the current month in one archive.  Or file-request specific
     back Issue filenames in distribution format [FNEWSGnn.ZIP] for a
     particular Issue.  Monthly Volumes are available as FNWSmmmy.ZIP
     where mmm = three letter month [JAN - DEC] and y = last digit of the
     current year [8], i.e., FNWSJAN8.ZIP for all the Issues from Jan 98.

     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 12                   8 Feb 1999


     Annual volumes are available as FNEWSn.ZIP where n = the Volume number
     1 - 15 for 1984 - 1998, respectively. Annual Volume archives range in
     size from 48K to 1.4M.


        INTERNET USERS: FidoNews is available via:

                        http://www.fidonews.org
                **      http://www.fidonet.org/fidonews.htm
                **      ftp://ftp.fidonet.org/pub/fidonet/fidonews/
                        ftp://ftp.irvbbs.com/fidonews/
                        ftp://ftp.nwstar.com/Fidonet/Fidonews

        And in non-English formats via:

                **      http://www.hvc.ee/pats/fidonews (Estonian)
                        http://www.fidonet.pp.se/sfnews (Swedish)

       **  LINK HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED

                                   *=*=*

     You may obtain an email subscription to FidoNews by sending email to:

                        jbarchuk@worldnet.att.net

     with a Subject line of: subscribe fnews-edist

     and no message in the message body. To remove your name from the
     email distribution use a Subject line of: unsubscribe fnews-edist
     with no message to the same address above.

                                      *

     You may retrieve current and previous Issues of FidoNews via FTPMail
     by sending email to:

                        ftpmail@fidonews.org

     with a Subject line of: help

     and FTPMail will immediately send a reply containing details and
     instructions. When you actually make a file request, FTPMail will
     respond in three stages. You find a link for this process on
     www.fidonews.org.

                                    *=*=*

     You can read the current FidoNews Issue in HTML format at:

                        http://www.fidonews.org

     STAR SOURCE for ALL Past Issues via FTP and file-request -
     Available for FReq from 1:396/1 or by anonymous FTP from:

                        ftp://ftp.sstar.com/fidonet/fnews/
     FIDONEWS 16-06               Page 13                   8 Feb 1999


     Each yearly archive also contains a listing of the Table-of-Contents
     for that year's issues.  The total set is currently about 13 Megs.

                                  =*=*=*=

     The current week's FidoNews are now also available almost immediately
     after publication on the FidoNews Editor homepage on the World Wide
     Web at:

                        http://209.77.228.66/fidonews.html

     There are also links there to jim barchuk's HTML FidoNews source and
     to John Souvestre's FTP site for the archives.  There is also an
     email link for sending in an article as message text.  Drop on over.

                            =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=

     SUBMISSIONS: You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
     FidoNews. Article submission requirements are contained in the file
     ARTSPEC.DOC, available from the FidoNews Editor, or file-requestable
     from 5:5/23 [5:7104/2] as file "ARTSPEC.DOC".  ALL Zone Coordinators
     should have copies of ARTSPEC.DOC. Please read it.

     "Fido", "FidoNet" and the dog-with-diskette are U.S. registered
     trademarks of Tom Jennings, P.O. Box 410923, San Francisco, CA 94141,
     and are used with permission.

                  "Disagreement is actually necessary,
                   or we'd all have to get in fights
                   or something to amuse ourselves
                   and create the requisite chaos."
                                     -Tom Jennings

     -----------------------------------------------------------------

