Rules for using the Internet<->Fidonet Gateway at 1:1/31 ======================================================== ***************************************************************** * All gateway mail is subject to inspection by the postmaster. * * There is no such thing as completely private mail. The * * postmaster will never reveal the contents of a message to any * * third party unless forced to by legal authorities or to file * * a network or legal complaint involving rules violations. * * Anyone violating the rules of this gateway, FidoNet, or * * Internet, will be cut off without notice and may be subject * * to an official policy complaint. No data files or encrypted * * messages may be sent through this gateway without prior * * permission. * ***************************************************************** The Internet can NOT be used for profit. Mail sent via this system gets routed via the NSFnet and cannot contain advertisements, sales literature, or other profit-making "things" unless in a direct reply to a query from an Internet site. FidoNet and this gateway also have restrictions on commercial messages. Do NOT send commercial messages via this gateway. You may not send any copyrighted material through the gateway. Any hint of an illegal activity in any message may result in one or more of the following: 1. Immediate termination of gateway access. 2. Official complaint to the proper network authorities. 3. A report to the proper legal authorities. There are no charges for using the gateway and Fidonet systems may *NOT* charge others for doing so (except for out of pocket phone costs). Any system that charges users for access to that system may *NOT* charge users for Gateway access. All Fidonet Sysops are *REQUIRED* to make sure that their users read these rules prior to using the Gateway. Sysops may be held responsible for rules violations by their users and Points. The gateway exists to provide a communications link between people that would otherwise be unable to communicate. It is NOT here as a way to avoid spending FidoNet NetMail charges. Outgoing messages with a destination address within Fidonet will be REJECTED and bounced by the gateway software. (ie: Any traffic with a destination address which ends in ".z#.fidonet.org" will automatically be BOUNCED by the gateway.) If you have mail accounts on both Fidonet and Internet, you are *NOT* permitted to use the gateway for communication between the two. Do NOT set up a ".forward" on your Internet account which forwards to your FidoNet address. Messages can take between 5 minutes and several weeks to be delivered! (Most mail is "routed" thru the FidoNet Backbone systems via the Zhubs.) You can not count on how long things will take. There may be vast time differences in delivery times between two messages sent to the same address on 2 consecutive days. Messages with bad addresses will usually (but not always) be returned to the sender within a few days. If you have addressing questions, please read the FAQ files for the gateway *first* before contacting the 'postmaster'. You may obtain the FAQ documents via FidoNet as follows: 1) Simply File-Request the FileName or Magic-Name from 1:1/31 2) Send a dummy message to the 'alias' name on 1:1/31 and it will be send back thru the gateway to you. FileName Magic-Name/Alias Description -------- ---------------- ----------- uucphelp.txt uucphelp Instructions for using UUCP gateways to send E-mail from/to FidoNet with specifics for the gateway at 1:1/31 infogate.txt infogate Info on the operation of the gateway at 1:1/31. (If you're using it, READ it!) gateways.lst gateways List of sites approved for GUUCP flag and rules for obtaining that status. Messages coming in thru the gateway from the Internet are SPLIT automatically by the gateway into 10k chunks. Anything over 32kb are simply discarded in their entirety. Automated Internet mailing lists can generate a lot of messages on a daily basis. Heavy traffic of this nature tends to bog down the gateway. Many people sign up for lists, read them for a few weeks, and then don't pay much attention to them after that, but they go on loading the gateway. You may not send files or UUENCODED text through the gateway without prior permission from the Postmaster. Do NOT use a name which contains a PERIOD in the name, as it will NOT be translated correctly coming back in and you may not be able to read it. Addressing OUTGOING Mail (to the Internet): ------------------------------------------ Messages must be addressed to 1:1/31 and either have the UserName "Uucp" in the FidoNet-Header with the Internet destination in a "To: address" line as the very FIRST line of the message; -or- have the Internet destination as the UserName field, complete with the '@' sign. (For more specific details, see the UUCPHELP document as per above) (If you are using an off-line reader, consult your SYSOP, not the postmaster.) INCOMING Mail (from the Internet): --------------------------------- Much of the incoming E-mail is *ROUTED* thru the FidoNet Backbone via 1:270/101. The mail for some systems are put directly on HOLD at 1:1/31 either at the request of the recipient SysOp, or one of the backbone routers or at the discretion of the gateway-operator. Systems receiving large volumes of E-mail in the form of mailing-lists, UUencoded files and such *will* be asked to POLL for their Mail. The FidoNet backbone will NOT route such large volumes of mail. NOTE: All incoming traffic from the Internet which appears to be 'mailing-list' traffic will NOT be routed but will be packed on *HOLD* at the gateway for the systems to pickup directly. All mail at this gateway are ARCmailed using ARC level-5 compression and ARCmail v.0.60 file-naming conventions. Incoming UUencoded traffic will also be placed on HOLD at the gateway. NO other compression methods are available. Mail will be HELD for a period of not more than 6 days (depending on disk space). You *must* Poll for your Mail at least twice a week or some mail will be lost. We just cannot hold mail indefinitely. If you would *like* for your Internet mail to be put on HOLD at 1:1/31 instead of being routed, SysOps may simply File-Request UUHOLD from 1:1/31. This will pass your address into a process that will dynamically re-configure the routing and related files. You will NOT receive any confirmation immediately, but will receive a routed NetMail confirmation from a later process. Be aware that when you do so, it will also automatically install an MX-record for your address so that your Internet mail will come in thru 1:1/31 even though your Net may have mail normally coming in thru one of the other gateways. If you are an NC and would like your entire Net's mail held for you and your mailer is capable of EMSI, just F'req UNETHOLD instead. (Mailing-list traffic is NOT packed during this routing cycle.) Mail TO or FROM *UnListed* Nodes -------------------------------- All Mail either FROM or TO an UnListed FidoNet address is simply *DELETED*. Since we cannot return it, nor route any replies to it, they are considered garbage in accordance with Policy-4. Point systems are considered "UnListed" if their BossNode is UnListed. The gateway's Nodelist is compiled at NOON on Fridays. If it arrives late, it will be sometime in the middle of the week before it a manual re-compile gets triggered. Any newly listed node should wait at least a week after being listed in the Nodelist before attempting to send E-Mail thru the gateway. This also applies to any NetMail for the 'postmaster'; it will simply NOT be seen if you are not in the Nodelist. Frequently Asked Questions ========================== Q: I sent a message to 'listserv@somewhere' and the gateway bounced it. Why? A: In order to curtail traffic, it is necessary to inhibit folks from getting themselves on mailing-lists when their traffic is routed. We can only *globally* BLOCK mail from going to such addresses, and cannot do it selectively. The blocking mechanism is currently set to catch any mail where the destination address contains any of the strings 'listserv', 'majordomo', 'ftpmail', or 'bitftp'. This also makes it difficult for folks to get an UNSUBSCRIBE message thru the gateway to terminate receipt of mailing-lists. If you need to get an UNSUBSCRIBE message thru, put ALL of the necessary information (destination address & body) in a message, but send it to POSTMASTER at 1:1/31. Q: I sent a message to 'user.name@f###.n###.z#.fidonet.org' and it was bounced. This is a valid Internet address. Why was it bounced? A: The gateways were NOT designed to be an alternate route for FidoNet to FidoNet traffic. That address is a FidoNet destination. It is against our charter with the InterNIC to route such traffic thru the Internet. Such traffic should be sent via FidoNet NETMAIL. Q: Someone sent me E-mail and it didn't arrive. He didn't get a 'bounce' either. A: One of several things could be happening. 1) The MX-record points your traffic to come in thru a different gateway other than 1:1/31. Traffic comes IN according to the DNS tables, NOT necessarily back in via the same gateway that you might have sent a message out. The complete Domain-Name-Server table is File-Requestable from 1:1/31 by REQuesting magic-name 'DNS'. Inside, there are comments explaining how to read it. You need to see if there is an entry for your Net pointing to another gateway's MX-receiver. The MX-receiver for 1:1/31 is noted as 'ns1.fidonet.org'. 2) It is also possible that the message is circling around thru the LPM links of the FidoNet backbone somewhere. Any mail which is routed is routed via 1:270/101 (ProtoStar). Contact your NC, RC, or REC to track down a possibly broken LPM link to your Node. It also appears that some members of the *EC structure are intentionally HOLDing, re-routing, or even TRASHING Mail coming from 1:1/31. 3) Your mail could be on HOLD and you failed to PICKUP your mail before it was automatically deleted. Some systems do not properly identify themselves and therefore cannot pickup their mail. Some systems tend to Poll *without* having "Pickup Mail" active for that event. In such cases, you are making the call, but will NOT pick up any waiting mail. Point systems CANNOT pickup their own mail; mail is routed or HELD for the BossNode. Q: I know that GIGO can assign a unique name to a system instead of the '@f###.n###.z1.fidonet.org' address. I'd like my system to have a shorter address. Can you do this for me? A: Sorry, folks. Our configuration is rather unique because of the method we use to transfer the mail between the PC and the UNIX-server. Besides, we'd go kinda nuts maintaining the configuration for the number of Nodes we serve. The more we shove into the configuration, the longer the gating takes and there's also a memory limitation that the software has to deal with too. Q: I got onto a mailing-list and I don't know how to UNsubscribe. How do I UNsubscribe from the mailing-list? A: Mailing-lists vary in how they are handled. Some have an automated procedure for subscribing and unsubscribing. Usually the initial verification when you were subscribed contained the instructions for unsubscribing from the mailing-list. If you do NOT have these instructions, there is usually an address which will get to a "human" owner who can help you. In general, the mailing-list will be named in the FORMAT of 'listname@somewhere' or 'listname-l@somewhere'. The "owner" address will usually be either 'listname-request@somewhere' or 'owner-listname@somewhere' or 'listname-owner@somewhere'. You can also look for an "Errors-To:" header in one of the messages from the list. 1:1/31 will have this line hidden behind a ^A line near the top of the text. If it has an "Errors-To:" line, this is *usually* the address that will reach the "owner" of the list who can help you. Q: I'd like to get a feed of Newsgroups (USENET) from 1:1/31. Can I do that? A: Sorry. We only feed Newsgroups to a selected group of routing systems for the LOCAL New Jersey nets. We cannot offer links to just anyone who wants them. * * * EOF * * *