From
FidoNews Robot@1:2320/100 to
All on Mon Sep 11 08:00:05 2017
=================================================================
GENERAL ARTICLES =================================================================
Mobile nodes
Ward Dossche
2:292/854
There are some beautiful software implementations which make it
possible to run a Fidonet node or point on an Android platform,
meaning you can even operate a node from certain smartphones. These
softwares are "Aftershock" and "HotdogEd".
I have now used "Aftershock" on my mobile point 2:292/854 for quite
some time in sometimes very rural conditions. It suited my purpose
perfectly and I am encouraging everyone to try it or HotdogEd in a
mobile environment.
It is fun, you can now operate a node or a point while on the road
without a bunch of other technical gizmos.
There have been a number of discussions about this -- are mobile nodes
real nodes or are they points? I decided that when it is clear that a
sysop is available to accept greater responsible for his or her
actions than a point, there is no reason why such a node cannot be
listed in the nodelist.
In the end a sysop is responsible for the actions of his or her users
and points and if such a mobile system is listed in the nodelist, it
provides a better control mechanism for the administrative tree.
So, as far as I'm concerned and we're dealing with mobile nodes
accepting the responsibility of a fully fledged sysop, I say "Welcome
to Fidonet".
To identify such mobile nodes, ERRFLAGS has been updated with the
addition of new user-flags in the Zone-2 segment, which eventually
could be elevated to full flag-status:
[,AFS] A mobile node running an Aftershock implementation on
Android
[,HDG] A mobile node running an HotdogEd implementation on Android
[,MOB] A mobile node running an undefined implementation on a
mobile device
Proposed listing of such nodes is:
,<node-nr>,<system name>,<location>,<sysop>,-Unpublished-,300,U,AFS
or
,<node-nr>,<system name>,<location>,<sysop>,-Unpublished-,300,U,HDG
or
,<node-nr>,<system name>,<location>,<sysop>,-Unpublished-,300,U,MOB
Ward Dossche ZC2 -----------------------------------------------------------------
DS-Lite emulation experiment v2, the results
By Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
The DS-Lite emulation experiment as announced in Fidonews 34:31 of
31 July has now been completed. On Friday 8 september the INO4 flag
for 2:280/5555 was removed from the nodelist and the A record for
fido.vlist.eu was reinstated. 2:280/5555 answered on incoming IPv4
again. Polling the IPv4 only links every 30 minutes was discon-
tinued. Everything was back to normal.
What is there to report? Nothing much really. Everything went as
planned. There is no indication that any mail was lost. There was of
course a slight delay in transfering mail from IPv4 only nodes to me
as they had to wait for me to poll them. I received no negative
feedback. I received a couple of acknowledgements to the netmail I
sent to all sysops concerned, some wished me luck.
One sysop, Fred Riccio, saw it as an opportunity to do some testing
himself. He trained his nodelist to binkd/argus converter to skip
entries with an INO4 flag, so that his IPv4 only binkd/argus would
never attempt to call nodes that can not accept incoming IPv4. He
tested this by preparing some crash mail for me. It just sat there
in his outbound until my system polled his and picked it up. As it
should.
Conclusion:
Running a fidonet node from a DS-Lite connection is not ideal
but it is definitely doable.
Thanks to veryone involved for cooperating in this experiment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
--- Azure/NewsPrep 3.0
# Origin: Home of the Fidonews (2:2/2.0)
* Origin: LiveWire BBS - Synchronet - LiveWireBBS.com (1:2320/100)