TO SEND A MESSAGE VIA INTERNET
WHAT IS INTERNET? Internet is an international network of local area
networks tied together by a high-speed backbone of data connections
operated by the National Science Foundation. This backbone network is
termed NSFNet. NSFNet ties together thousands of University computer science
departments, research labs, and high technology firms nationwide.
Additionally, a growing web of gateways and connections allow e-mail
delivery to 43 countries and virtually every major commercial online service
in the world.
WHY WOULD I WANT TO USE INTERNET? The primary interest in Internet
connections revolves around the use of e-mail. Internet allows
individuals with e-mail access to send messages of course. But more than
that, over the past few years most other networks have developed
gateways to the Internet. This BBS is gated into Internet. The
bottom line is that you can send messages to anyone with an Internet e-
mail box, or a connecting network. CompuServe, MCI Mail, AT&T Mail,
America Online, GEnie, Dialog, Sprintmail, and networks in Europe, the
Soviet Union, and Japan and over forty other countries all have
Internet connections. There is no charge for Internet
E-mail anywhere on the globe at this time. If you have a friend in Japan
with an Internet mailing address - go for it. No extra charge.
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HOW DO I ADDRESS AN INTERNET E-MAIL MESSAGE?
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Item 3 on the main mail menu puts you in a private e-mail board
setup specifically to handle Internet mail messages. This works
like a normal TBBS message area. Enter the desired address at the
regular TO prompt. And likewise the subject at the SUBJECT: prompt.
No special addressing requirements other than the usual problem of
having the correct Internet mail address. No particular requirements
for formatting the text either.
This is basically a private e-mail area. That means that other callers
cannot read the e-mail you send or receive. But note that the system
operators do have the ability to read all electronic mail on this system,
and while not a particulary curious lot, they will from time to time
look over electronic mail messages in the course of routine maintenance.
As a result, these messages cannot be considered to be truly private.
The area features an IN BOX and an OUT BOX. This is pretty much self
explanatory. Incoming mail to you from the Internet goes in the IN
box and a copy of those messages you send is kept in the OUT box.
You can of course copy messages freely into your CUBBYHOLE function
as well.
You can REPLY to a received Internet e-mail message by simply pressing
R as in any other TBBS message area.
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CAN I RECEIVE INTERNET MAIL ON THIS BBS?
IF SO, WHAT'S MY INTERNET ADDRESS ON THIS SYSTEM?
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Yes, you can. Your address is as follows:
joe.user@boardwatch.com
or
JOE.USER@BOARDWATCH.COM
Replace Joe.User with your own logon name you use to logon to Boardwatch.
NOTE THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE FIRST AND LAST NAME. This is an addressing
convention peculiar to the Internet and it IS important.
The software we are using to implement this Internet mail feature, was
designed specifically for this purpose. When replying,
you can now use the normal TBBS REPLY function and the Internet address
will be captured from the incoming message so you can reply just as you
would on any other TBBS message area.
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WHAT ARE THE SIZE LIMITS OF AN INTERNET MESSAGE?
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Interesting question. This varies from system to system and gateway to
gateway across the Internet. By convention, you are generally assumed
safe with a message size of 50 KB or less. TBBS (the basic BBS software
this system uses) limits the size of incoming and outgoing messages to a
maximum of 9999 characters. So the easy answer to this question is
9999 characters using the TBBS message editor.
That said, note that you can create a text message of virtually unlimited
size offline and "attach" it to an Internet message as a "file enclosure."
This file enclosure will be delivered as an Internet text message with
precisely the same delivery address as the message it is "attached to."
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CAN I ATTACH BINARY FILES SUCH AS .ZIP OR .EXE FILES?
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Yes, you can use the normal TBBS file enclosure function. However,
most of the Internet consists of 7-bit ASCII text only gateways that
would rather seriously damage a.EXE or .ZIP file normally. Our system
software automatically detects and processes such data files using
a process termed UUENCODING that converts the 8-bit data into 7-bit
ASCII characters for transport. When you send someone a message with
an enclosed .ZIP or .EXE file, they will normally receive it in this
UUENCODED format. This is not as bad as it seems. Transporting data
files on the Internet is quite normally done this way, and numerous
utilities are available for them to UUEDECODE it. Some of these
utilities are available for download on this system.
Further, if someone sends YOU a data file in UUENCODED format, this
system will automatically run UUDECODE on it and present it to you
as a normal TBBS enclosed file - attached to the incoming message.
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WHAT HAPPENS IF I RECEIVE A MESSAGE LARGER THAN 9999 CHARACTERS
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No problemo. The system will DISPLAY the FIRST 500 or so characters of the
message quite normally. The ENTIRE message, if over 9999 characters,
will be found in a text file ATTACHED to the message. Press E for
ENCLOSURE and DOWNLOAD the full message text.
If it is a TEXT message from a UNIX system, there may be an anomaly.
Most UNIX systems treat text differently than DOS, and of course
Macintosh systems have yet another format.
Since many different systems are attached to the Internet,
the message may not appear to be formatted correctly. This is resolved
for display in the TBBS editor, but large messages are attached precisely
as they are received.
As a result, inbound text messages larger than 9999 characters may look
all run-on without carriage returns. There are a number of utilities to
convert UNIX text to DOS text, MAC text to DOS text, etc. We can
recommend a program titled MUD (Mac/Unix/Dos converter) which simply
reformats the file to DOS format for easy reading.
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HOW DO I SEND MAIL TO MCI MAIL?
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TO: jack.rickard@mcimail.com
OR (better)
TO: 418-7112@mcimail.com
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HOW DO I SEND MAIL TO COMPUSERVE?
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TO: 71177.2310@compuserve.com
Note that most compuserve ids are separated with a COMMA conventionally
as in 71177,2310. You MUST convert the comma to a PERIOD as 71177.2310
to successfully address mail to CompuServe subscribers through Internet.
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HOW DO I SEND MAIL TO AMERICA ONLINE?
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TO: user@aol.com
This is simply the user ID on America Online with the @AOL.COM domain.
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HOW DO I SEND MAIL TO GENIE?
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TO: user@genie.geis.com
Address simply to a user ID at domain @GENIE.GEIS.COM
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HOW DO I SEND MAIL TO A FIDONET SYSTEM?
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Actually this BBS is connected to Fidonet and you can use the Fidonet
netmail area to address mail without using Internet. However, it is
possible to address mail to someone on a Fidonet system via Internet
addressing. A FidoNet address normally looks like this:
jack rickard 1:104/555
Internet addressing would translate this to:
jack.rickard@f555.n104.z1.fidonet.org
Where jack.rickard is the user name, 555 is the node number, 104 is the
local network number, and 1 is the FidoNet zone, in this case 1 for
North America.
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HOW DO I FIND SOMEONE'S INTERNET ADDRESS?
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Broadly speaking, you either receive a message from someone in the Internet
that includes a return address, are given the address directly from the
person, or read about an address that has some importance. There is no
"master" directory of Internet e-mail addresses. You can reach people
on Fidonet, CompuServe, MCI Mail, AT&T Mail and dozens of other mail
services that each have their own directories and some that have no
directory at all.
That said, there is an experimental "smart" database called a KNOWBOT
in Reston, Virginia that systematically searches several of the larger
directories in the world to locate a person's e-mail address. To
use this KNOWBOT:
1. Address an Internet Message to NETADDRESS@NRI.RESTON.VA.US
2. Enter anything you like in the Subject field - it's not read.
3. On the first line of the message, enter a name or part of name
of the person you are looking for an address from. This should
be flush left on the first line.
4. You can add additional names on subsequent lines.
A search result will be sent to you by reply electronic mail.
That National Science Foundation awarded a $12 million contract in
January 1993 for a national directory. AT&T will be principally
responsible for maintaining this directory when it does become available.
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HOW SOON DOES MY MESSAGE GET THERE?
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This varies tremendously depending on the gateways the message must go
through to reach its destination. Internet traffic between major systems
in the U.S. has constantly improved to the point that most messages arrive
within just a few minutes. This BBS is setup to scan out your message,
dial the local Internet host, and send the message on its way less than
five minutes after you save your message and in many cases in less than a
minute.
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ARE THERE ANY ADDITIONAL CHARGES FOR INTERNET MAIL?
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No. You have essentially unlimited Internet mail privileges on this BBS
as part of your normal access. Note that we do pay for an internet
connection to transport mail, and we reserve the right to change this
policy in the future.