mark lewis wrote to Wilfred van Velzen <=-
then you're behind the game... we'rer talking about
nodelists from the '80s and '90s... they were absolutely a
thing because i asked back then what those numbers at the
end of the nodelist flags were for... sadly, two system
crashes have lost the information i was sent back then but
they were absolutely a thing for old software...
Fakenets were for points because support for true points was about nonexistent.
From the Squish mail tosser manual:
" Fakenet Points
In the early days of FidoNet, support for true points was minimal
or nonexistent. As a workaround, instead of giving true 4D
addresses to a system's points, a dummy net number was created.
In turn, the node numbers in that net would actually represent
points of the bossnode. Since this dummy net/node combination
was a simple net/node address (with no point numbers), adapting
existing software was no problem. This net number would be used
for internal communication between the bossnode and the points.
For example, if 123/456 were using a dummy net number of 14122,
the fakenet version of the address 123/456.1 would be 14122/1.
When using the fakenet scheme, it is vitally important to ensure
that fakenet numbers do not "escape" out into the rest of the
net. Since many systems could theoretically be using the same
dummy network number, the fakenet addresses are usually stripped
or converted by the boss system before messages are sent to the
rest of the network."
Nothing secretive about it. It just seems some sysops, while they may have been around when Ward Christensen invented the BBS, just don't remember
enough about how Fidonet used to work. I guess it's faulty memory due to advanced age. :)
Later,
Sean
... Retirement is the time where there is plenty of it or not enough.
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