| ==Phrack Inc.== | |
| Volume Two, Issue 24, File 3 of 13 | |
| <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> | |
| <> <> | |
| <> Limbo To Infinity <> | |
| <> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <> | |
| <> Chapter Three of The Future Transcendent Saga <> | |
| <> <> | |
| <> Traversing The Barriers For Gateway Communication <> | |
| <> <> | |
| <> Presented by Knight Lightning <> | |
| <> February 11, 1989 <> | |
| <> <> | |
| <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> | |
| Beyond Bitnet lies the other wide area networks. We will discuss more about | |
| those networks in chapter four. Right now lets learn how to communicate with | |
| those other realms. | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Mailing To Other Networks - Gateway Communications | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| Bitnet, as you already know, is not the only computer network in the world. | |
| What you might be surprised to find out, however, is that when you have access | |
| to Bitnet you also have access to many other networks as well. Unfortunately, | |
| the methods for communicating with people in these other networks are not as | |
| simple as the ones described earlier. | |
| Bitnet's links to other networks give you access to people and services you | |
| could not contact otherwise (or at least without great expense). This alone | |
| should make learning a bit about them worthwhile. | |
| In chapter one of this series, I showed you how some Bitnet nodenames can be | |
| broken down into state abbreviations. To go a step further, try and think of | |
| Bitnet as a country and the links between the Bitnet nodes as highways. | |
| Another network (or country in this example) is connected to our highway system | |
| at one point, which is called a "gateway." These borders do not let | |
| interactive messages or files through; only mail is allowed past the gateway. | |
| The people in these other networks have addresses just like yours, but you will | |
| need to specify something extra in order to get mail to them. A userid@node | |
| address is not enough, because that does not tell the Bitnet mail software what | |
| network that node is in. Therefore, we can extend the network address with a | |
| code that identifies the destination network. In this example, the destination | |
| network is ARPAnet (a network I'm sure you have heard much about), the code for | |
| which is ARPA. | |
| TARAN@MSP-BBS.ARPA | |
| +---- +------ +--- | |
| | | | | |
| | | +-------------------- the network | |
| | | | |
| | +---------------------------- the node | |
| | | |
| +---------------------------------- the userid | |
| That is about as simple as an address from another network gets. Generally | |
| they are much more complex. Because of the variety of networks there can be no | |
| example which will show you what a "typical" address might be. However, you | |
| should not have to let it worry you too much. If someone tells you that his | |
| network address is C483307@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU, just use it like that with your | |
| mail software. As long as you understand that the mail is going to another | |
| network and that the transit time may be longer than usual (although in many | |
| cases I have found that mail going to EDU addresses is delivered much faster | |
| than Bitnet mail) you should not have many problems. | |
| More On Gateways | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| I introduced the gateways in the previous section, but didn't get into too much | |
| detail. This is because the subject can get more than a little complex at | |
| times. Actually, understanding gateways isn't difficult at all, but | |
| interpreting network addresses that use them can be. | |
| In the previous example, an address for someone in another network looked like | |
| this: | |
| TARAN@MSP-BBS.ARPA | |
| The ".ARPA" in the address tells your networking software that your letter | |
| should go to someone in another network. What you might not realize is that | |
| your networking software "knows" that the address for the gateway to ARPA may | |
| be at, say INTERBIT. It might extend the address to look something like this: | |
| TARAN%MSP-BBS.ARPA@INTERBIT | |
| +---- +------ +--- +------- | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | +--------------- the node of the gateway | |
| | | | | |
| | | +-------------------- the network | |
| | | | |
| | +---------------------------- the node | |
| | | |
| +---------------------------------- the userid | |
| The gateway is a server machine (userid@node) that transfers files between the | |
| two networks. In this case, it is ARPA@INTERBIT. Note that the "%" replaces | |
| the "@" from the previous example. This is because Bitnet networking software | |
| cannot handle addresses with more than one AT sign (@). When your mail gets to | |
| the gateway, the "@INTERBIT" would be stripped off, and the "%" would be turned | |
| back into a "@". | |
| Ok, so now you are asking, "If this is so automatic, why do you need to know | |
| this?" In many cases your networking software is not smart enough to know that | |
| the gateway for SCONNET is at STLMOVM. If this is the case, you have to type | |
| out the whole address with all of the interesting special characters. | |
| For example, sometimes, you may have to change the addresses around somewhat. | |
| Let's say I'm talking to Lex Luthor one day and he tells me his address is | |
| "lex@plover.COM". I have found that an address like "lex@plover.COM" would | |
| actually be mailed to as "plover!lex@RUTGERS.EDU". Now this is just a specific | |
| example of how it works from my particular system and other systems (not to | |
| mention networks) will work differently (this is a guide for people using | |
| Bitnet). The COM (Commercial) addresses are not recognized by the mailer at | |
| UMCVMB and so I have to route them through Rutgers University. In chapter | |
| four, I will discuss some of the other networks that are interconnected. | |
| In many cases, a gateway to a network may be in another network. In this | |
| example, we are sending mail to RED at node KNIGHT in HDENNET. The gateway to | |
| the network is in, say, ARPAnet. Our networking software is smart enough to | |
| know where ARPA gateway is, so the address might look something like this: | |
| RED%KNIGHT.HDENNET@SRI-NIC.ARPA | |
| +-- +----- +------ +------ +--- | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | +----- the network of the gateway | |
| | | | | | |
| | | | +------------- the node of the gateway | |
| | | | | |
| | | +--------------------- the network | |
| | | | |
| | +---------------------------- the node | |
| | | |
| +-------------------------------- the userid | |
| As you can see, these addresses can get pretty long and difficult to type. | |
| Perhaps the only consolation is that your address probably looks just as bad to | |
| the people in the destination network. | |
| Foundations Abound | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| Just as there are servers and services in Bitnet, there are similar | |
| counterparts in the other networks as well. There are many electronic digests | |
| and servers that are similar to Bitnet servers available on several of the | |
| other networks. | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Gateways To Non-Standard Networks - Intermail | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| Intermail is perhaps the most interesting exception to standard gateways. It's | |
| better to just show you what I mean rather than try to really technically | |
| describe the process. With Intermail, you can access networks you probably | |
| never thought were accessible. | |
| I have included the instructions for using the Intermail system for | |
| transmitting computer mail between users in the MCI-Mail system, the GTE | |
| Telemail system, the Compmail/Dialcom 164 system, and the NFS-Mail/Dialcom 157 | |
| system to the ARPA-Mail system. The Intermail system may be used in either | |
| direction. | |
| Mail to be sent to MCI Mail, GTE Telemail, Compmail, or NSF-Mail is sent to the | |
| "Intermail" mailbox on the local mail system. The Intermail system operates by | |
| having a program service mailboxes in both the local and the destination mail | |
| systems. When the right information is supplied at the beginning of a message, | |
| the program forwards those messages into the other mail system. | |
| In order for a message to be delivered to a mailbox in another mail system, | |
| forwarding information must be included at the beginning of the text of each | |
| message. This forwarding information tells the mail forwarding program which | |
| mail system to forward the message to, and which mailboxes to send it to. This | |
| information is in the form: | |
| Forward: <mail system> | |
| To: <user mailbox> | |
| <blank line> | |
| The syntax allowed on the "To:" line is that of the system being forwarded | |
| into. In ARPA-Mail it is also possible to send to a list of CC recipients in | |
| any of the mail gateway systems. See the examples for further details. | |
| In either direction, the local Subject field of the message to Intermail is | |
| used as the Subject field of the message delivered in the other mail system. | |
| Sending To Non-Standard Networks From Bitnet | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| In this direction, the Internet user must first send mail to the Intermail | |
| mailbox on the ARPA-Internet. The address of "Intermail" is | |
| "INTERMAIL@ISI.EDU". Next, the Mailbox forwarding information must be added at | |
| the beginning of the text of each message. The names of the mailboxes are | |
| MCI-MAIL, TELEMAIL (for GTE Telemail), COMPMAIL, and NSF-MAIL. | |
| This information is in the form: | |
| Forward: <Type name of mailbox here> | |
| To: <a valid address on the system you're forwarding to> | |
| <blank line> | |
| <Message...> | |
| Please Note: Although CompuServe (CIS), Telex, and FAX are accessible from | |
| MCI-Mail, the Intermail gateway does not support these services. | |
| However, there is a Bitnet-CompuServe gateway, but that will be | |
| discussed in the next section of this file. | |
| Sending To Bitnet From Non-Standard Networks | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| Supposing that you have an account on MCI-Mail, GTE Telemail, Compmail, or | |
| NSF-Mail and you would like to mail to someone on Bitnet, you would direct | |
| your mail to one of the following addresses; | |
| "INTERMAIL" (actually MCI-ID "107-8239") in MCI-Mail, | |
| "INTERMAIL/USCISI" in GTE Telemail, | |
| "164:CMP00817" in Compmail/Dialcom 164, and | |
| "157:NSF153" in NSF-Mail | |
| Once you have done this, you actually type the following as the first two lines | |
| in the mail: | |
| Forward: ARPA | |
| To: KNIGHT%MSPVMA.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU | |
| <blank line> | |
| <Message...> | |
| In this example, KNIGHT is the userid and MSPVMA is the Bitnet node. | |
| CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU is the Internet gateway to ARPAnet. It's really just that | |
| simple. | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| In case of questions or problems using Intermail, please send a message to | |
| Intermail-Request@ISI.EDU. | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| CompuServe | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| The gateway is not yet live as of this writing. Testing on it has been delayed | |
| somewhat because of high-priority projects inside CompuServe. However, it | |
| might be a safe bet that by the time you read this that the gateway will be | |
| complete. | |
| The specific mechanism is that the gateway machine, 3B2/400 named Loquat, | |
| believes that it has a UUCP neighbor "compuserve" which polls it. In reality, | |
| the UUCP connection is a lie all around, but the gateway starts up on an hourly | |
| basis, pokes through the UUCP queue, finds mail aimed at CompuServe, and | |
| creates script language on the fly suitable for a utility called Xcomm 2.2 to | |
| call CompuServe, download any waiting mail, and upload any queued mail. | |
| Appropriate header hacking is done so that CompuServe looks like just another | |
| RFC-compliant entity on the Internet, and the Internet looks like yet another | |
| gatewayed system from the perspective of the CompuServe subscriber - a very | |
| minor modification to the usual syntax used in their mailer is needed, but | |
| this project has provided the impetus for them to generalize the mechanism, | |
| something they had apparently not needed before. | |
| So that's where it stands. Loquat speaks with machines at Ohio State. At the | |
| moment, there is a problem preventing mail passage except between CompuServe | |
| and Ohio State, while they finish development and testing. Also, part of the | |
| header hacking done is to make CompuServe IDs look right on the Internet - the | |
| usual 7xxxx,yyy is a problem due to the presence of the ",". | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Easynet | |
| ~~~~~~~ | |
| A mail gateway between Easynet and the UUCP network and DARPA Internet | |
| (including CSNET) is provided by the Western Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, | |
| California. Hopefully this service will provide improved communications | |
| between the DEC community and the Usenet and Internet communities. | |
| Mailing From A Bitnet Site To An Easynet Node | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| To mail a message from an Internet site to an Easynet node (say MSPVAX), you | |
| type: | |
| To: user%mspvax.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com | |
| A few other forms are still accepted for backward compatibility, but their use | |
| is discouraged and they will not be described here. | |
| Mailing From Easynet To Bitnet | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| For people on Easynet who would like to mail to people on Bitnet the following | |
| information may be of interest. | |
| The gateway supports connection to Bitnet using a pseudo-domain syntax. These | |
| addresses are translated by the gateway to the proper form to address the | |
| gateway into Bitnet. To address users in Bitnet you type: | |
| To: DECWRL::"user@host.bitnet" | |
| (Example: To: DECWRL::KNIGHT@MSPVAX.BITNET) | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Mailnet | |
| ~~~~~~~ | |
| The Bitnet-Mailnet Gateway no longer exists. EDUCOM's Mailnet Service was | |
| discontinued after June 30, 1987 in agreement with MIT. | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| DASnet | |
| ~~~~~~ | |
| DASnet is one of the networks that is connected to AppleLink. | |
| Sending to DASnet from Bitnet: | |
| 1. In the "TO" field, enter the DASnet gateway address: XB.DAS@STANFORD.BITNET | |
| 2. In the "SUBJECT" field, enter the DASnet user id (such as [1234AA]joe) | |
| Example (0756AA is the DASnet address and randy is the user on that system): | |
| To: XB.DAS@STANFORD.BITNET | |
| Subject: [0756AA]randy | |
| 3. If you type a "!" after the address in the subject field, you can insert | |
| comments, but the subject line must be limited to 29 characters. | |
| Example; Subject: [0756AA]randy!Networks are cool | |
| Sending to Bitnet from DASnet | |
| 1. In the "TO" field, enter the BITNET address followed by "@dasnet" | |
| 2. Use the "SUBJECT" field for comments. | |
| Example: | |
| To: knight@umcvmb.bitnet@dasnet#MSubject: Gateways | |
| Don't be confused, there are two @s and a at the end. | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Gateways Between Bitnet And Other Networks Not Previously Detailed | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| ______________________________________________________ | |
| | | | | | |
| | "u" = UserId | "h" = Host (Node) | "d" = Node (Host) | | |
| |______________|___________________|___________________| | |
| To: CSNET Phonenet <u>@<h>.csnet | |
| To: JANET (Domains: U: uk) <u>%<d>.U@ac.uk | |
| To: EAN (Domains: E: cdn, dfn, etc.) <u>@<d>.E | |
| To: COSAC <h>/<u>@france.csnet | |
| To: Xerox Internet (Domains: R: A registry) <u>.R@xerox.com | |
| To: DEC's Easynet <*Detailed Earlier*> <u>%<h>.dec.com@decwrl.dec.com | |
| To: IBM's VNET <u>@vnet | |
| To: ACSNET (Domains: A: oz.au) <u>%<d>.A@<g> | |
| To: UUCP h1!h2!<h>!<u>@psuvax1 | |
| To: JUNET (Domains: J: junet) <u>%<d>.J@csnet-relay.csnet | |
| To: JANET <u>%U.<d>@ac.uk | |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | |
| To: BITNET | |
| From | |
| ARPA Internet <u>%<h>.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu | |
| CSNET Phonenet <u>%<h>.bitnet@relay.cs.net | |
| JANET <u>%<h>@uk.ac.rl.earn | |
| EAN <u>@<h>.bitnet | |
| COSAC adi/<u>%<h>.bitnet@relay.cs.net | |
| ACSNET <u>%<h>.bitnet@munnari.oz | |
| UUCP psuvax1!<h>.bitnet!<u> | |
| JUNET <u>@<h>.bitnet | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |
| Conclusion | |
| ~~~~~~~~~~ | |
| Now that you understand how to mail to the other networks by making use of the | |
| gateways, we will begin looking at the other networks themselves. As my | |
| greatest area of expertise is Bitnet, I will cover the other networks in less | |
| detail. If they interest you, I'm sure you will find a way to learn more about | |
| them. So read Chapter Four of The Future Transcendent Saga -- Frontiers. | |
| :Knight Lightning | |
| _______________________________________________________________________________ | |