From: ryan@MONTEREY.remove-rer-this

To: Digital Man
Hey Digital Man,

I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind answering. Full
disclosure I use Mystic but I enjoy communicating with people that use Synchronet and have a couple questions more or less related to interoperability.

First off, I was told that by sending netmail to "ping"@<some node>, if <some node> is a Synchronet board, there's some type of response. This would be a cool capability to bring to Mystic, particularly for troubleshooting traffic flow, hub problems, etc. Do you have a writeup somewhere of what this is, or could you point me to the part of the synchronet codebase which implements this?

Second, I notice that Mystic and Synchronet wrap text differently. On FTN
mail I think we all know what the stylistic discrepancies are, but for some reason on qwk (I subscribe to DOVEnet) it seems like the mail looks even different than FTN. I find that the 80th character on each line is cut off, effectively removing one character per line. Any ideas what this could be related to?

Thanks!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs
--- Synchronet 3.17c-Win32 NewsLink 1.111
* Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: netsurge@1:229/101.remove-b4o-this

To: ryan

First off, I was told that by sending netmail to "ping"@<some node>, if <some node> is a Synchronet board, there's some type of response. This would be a cool capability to bring to Mystic, particularly for troubleshooting traffic flow, hub problems, etc. Do you have a writeup somewhere of what this is, or could you point me to the part of the synchronet codebase which implements this?

On a side note, any node in an FTN network that is flying the "PING" flag has this capability.

|15frank |08// |15netsurge
|07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness
|11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://scinet-ftn.org

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (1:229/101)
--- Synchronet 3.17c-Win32 NewsLink 1.111
* Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: james.coyle@1:129/215.remove-b4o-this

To: Netsurge

On a side note, any node in an FTN network that is flying the "PING"
flag has this capability.

Ahhh then there must be a standard document for this, if there is an official nodelist flag.

I feel like someone did send me the information like a decade ago lol

If anyone knows of a link let me know. My internet is really limited where I am right now so searching isn't as easy as one would expect especially if I am busy streaming Masterchef in a language I can't understand lol

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/03/09 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 (1:129/215)
--- Synchronet 3.17c-Win32 NewsLink 1.111
* Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: rampage@SESTAR.remove-xon-this

To: ryan
Re: "ping" FTN node, qwk mail
By: ryan to Digital Man on Mon Mar 09 2020 01:33:00


ryan> First off, I was told that by sending netmail to "ping"@<some node>, if
ryan> <some node> is a Synchronet board, there's some type of response. This
ryan> would be a cool capability to bring to Mystic,

i thought mystic already had this? ISTR testing it back with the v1.11betas but
i might be mixing that up with something else...

ryan> particularly for
ryan> troubleshooting traffic flow, hub problems, etc. Do you have a writeup
ryan> somewhere of what this is, or could you point me to the part of the
ryan> synchronet codebase which implements this?

it is part of sbbsecho since that's the mail tosser... but when it was first introduced some decade or more back, it was done with netmail trackers and handlers... anyway, here's the currently available documentation that i'm aware
of... details for
specific programs (eg: ot-track, netmgr, etc) are available...

http://ftsc.org/docs/fts-5001.006

----->8 snip 8<-----

5.10. Robot flags
-----------------

PING
----

Specified as exactly "PING" with no arguments. Nodes flying this
flag will adhere to the following functionality:

1) PING-function:

If a message destined to "PING" arrives at its final destination
and this final destination flies the "PING"-flag, then the
receiving node will bounce the message back to the original sender
clearly quoting all the original via-lines.

If a message destined to "PING" arrives at its final destination
but this final destination does _not_ fly the "PING"-flag then the
message may be deleted from the inbound-queue without further
follow-up.

2) TRACE-function:

If a message destined to "PING" arrives at a node which flies the
PING-flag but is merely passing-through to another destination
then the in-transit node will notify the sender of this occurrence
and will forward the original mail unaltered towards its final
destination.

WARNING: the sender's name (in either direction) must *NEVER* be
"PING".

----->8 snip 8<-----


)\/(ark

---
þ Synchronet þ The SouthEast Star Mail HUB - SESTAR
--- Synchronet 3.17c-Win32 NewsLink 1.111
* Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: netsurge@1:229/101.remove-20e-this

To: James Coyle

Ahhh then there must be a standard document for this, if there is an official nodelist flag.

There is no technical standard for it but FTS-5001.006 refers to it:

5.10. Robot flags
-----------------

PING
----

Specified as exactly "PING" with no arguments. Nodes flying this
flag will adhere to the following functionality:

1) PING-function:

If a message destined to "PING" arrives at its final destination
and this final destination flies the "PING"-flag, then the
receiving node will bounce the message back to the original sender
clearly quoting all the original via-lines.

If a message destined to "PING" arrives at its final destination
but this final destination does _not_ fly the "PING"-flag then the
message may be deleted from the inbound-queue without further
follow-up.

2) TRACE-function:

If a message destined to "PING" arrives at a node which flies the
PING-flag but is merely passing-through to another destination
then the in-transit node will notify the sender of this occurrence
and will forward the original mail unaltered towards its final
destination.

WARNING: the sender's name (in either direction) must *NEVER* be
"PING".

On a side note, did you get my email?

|15frank |08// |15netsurge
|07disksh0p|08!|07bbs |08% |07bbs.diskshop.ca |08% |07mystic goodness
|11SciNet |03ftn hq |08% |07https://scinet-ftn.org

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: % disksh0p!bbs % bbs.diskshop.ca % SciNet ftn hq % (1:229/101)
--- Synchronet 3.17c-Win32 NewsLink 1.111
* Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: ryan@MONTEREY.remove-az5-this

To: Rampage

it is part of sbbsecho since that's the mail tosser... but when it was fir roduced some decade or more back, it was done with netmail trackers and ha ... anyway, here's the currently available documentation that i'm aware of tails for speci

Thanks! Looks like we're all on the same page now. Could be a nice feature to have in Mystic as well, so I appreciate your help.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: monterey bbs
--- Synchronet 3.17c-Win32 NewsLink 1.111
* Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: digital.man@vert.synchro.net.remove-83v-this

To: ryan
Re: "ping" FTN node, qwk mail
By: ryan to Digital Man on Mon Mar 09 2020 01:33 am

Hey Digital Man,

I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind answering. Full disclosure I use Mystic but I enjoy communicating with people that use Synchronet and have a couple questions more or less related to interoperability.

First off, I was told that by sending netmail to "ping"@<some node>, if <some node> is a Synchronet board, there's some type of response. This would be a cool capability to bring to Mystic, particularly for troubleshooting traffic flow, hub problems, etc. Do you have a writeup somewhere of what this is, or could you point me to the part of the synchronet codebase which implements this?

It's a feature of SBBSecho based on FTS-5001: http://ftsc.org/docs/fts-5001.006

Second, I notice that Mystic and Synchronet wrap text differently. On FTN mail I think we all know what the stylistic discrepancies are, but for some reason on qwk (I subscribe to DOVEnet) it seems like the mail looks even different than FTN. I find that the 80th character on each line is cut off, effectively removing one character per line. Any ideas what this could be related to?

No. If you view the message text in a QWK reader, I assume it looks fine? It's probably just that Mystic doesn't like long-line paragraphs (so-called "flowed"
text: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2646.txt).


digital man

This Is Spinal Tap quote #22:
David St. Hubbins: Here lies David St. Hubbins... and why not?
Norco, CA WX: 72.0øF, 34.0% humidity, 1 mph WSW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs --- Synchronet 3.17c-Win32 NewsLink 1.111
* Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)

From: poindexter.fortran@REALITY.remove-gy9-this

To: Netsurge

Netsurge wrote to James Coyle <=-

WARNING: the sender's name (in either direction) must *NEVER* be
"PING".

Yeah, Fidonet was a great technology, until someone named ping sent a PING request from a node flying the PING flag to another PING node...


... The exception also declares the rule
--- MultiMail/XT v0.52
þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org
--- Synchronet 3.17c-Win32 NewsLink 1.111
* Vertrauen - Riverside County, California - telnet://vert.synchro.net

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)