5 ms·

I'm enough of a dinosaur that I think I'd be good just going back to the days of USENET, UUCP and rn.

by jes 4y ago

tenebrisalietum 4y ago
I've been looking into UUCP recently and it's pretty awesome. I really like the "call" model and "hold and forwarding" features of UUCP: - All that's needed for two systems to exchange data is for one to call the other and it doesn't matter which side does or it how. - A UUCP node will hold messages received by one node, but intended for another, until it makes/receives a call from the destination system or intermediate. You can have a "leaf" system that calls into a hub system regularly but never receives calls, and it can still bidirectionally communicate due to the above. It'll be slow depending on the call schedule but it worked in the 70's. :) It's a lot of work though because you have to specify all your nodes, links, and forwarding manually. You also have to integrate it with your UNIX mailer to get standard mail tools working with it, but it wasn't too hard with postfix.
- jes 4y ago
  I liked it too, when I used it. It's been decades, though. I think you're right about the use model and its benefits. uw-beaver!tikal!jes :-)
- themadturk 4y ago
  I used UUCP on a Kaypro 10 CP/M machine in the early 90s to access email at a local ISP. It took some doing to get set up, but worked really well.
  - jes 4y ago
    Was this a port to CP/M? The Kaypro 10 was a Z80A cpu, right?
    - themadturk 4y ago
      I really don't remember anymore, but I know there was at least one version of UUCP on the old Oakland CP/M software archives. It was at least 1993 when I was doing this; CP/M was a hobby alongside my DOS machine.
- Karrot_Kream 4y ago
  If you want a "modern" take on UUCP, there's NNCP [1] which encrypts packets and offers a TCP transfer mode out of the box. It also has the concept of multicast arenas to send packets to multiple hosts at a time. There's no real concept of paths, but you can write one atop NNCP if you'd like. [1a]: https://www.complete.org/nncp/ https://www.complete.org/nncp/ a site with info about NNCP [1b]: http://www.nncpgo.org/ http://www.nncpgo.org/ the official site. There's also a Matrix room and an IRC channel for questions and general community if you're interested.
zzo38computer 4y ago
If you want to set up a NNTP server, you can do so; I have my own NNTP server set up, and others can also do. I wrote a program called "sqlnetnews"; there is also "WendzelNNTP"; and you can also use some of the more complicated ones such as INN, etc.
- jes 4y ago
  I really appreciate the advice. I'll check it out.
Karrot_Kream 4y ago
If you want a "modern" take on UUCP, there's NNCP [1] which encrypts packets and offers a TCP transfer mode out of the box. [1a]: https://www.complete.org/nncp/ https://www.complete.org/nncp/ a site with info about NNCP [1b]: http://www.nncpgo.org/ http://www.nncpgo.org/ the official site. There's also a Matrix room and an IRC channel for questions and general community if you're interested.

I'm enough of a dinosaur that I think I'd be good just going back to the days of USENET, UUCP and rn.

by jes 4y ago

I'm enough of a dinosaur that I think I'd be good just going back to the days of USENET, UUCP and rn.

I've been looking into UUCP recently and it's pretty awesome. I really like the "call" model and "hold and forwarding" features of UUCP: - All that's needed for two systems to exchange data is for one to call the other and it doesn't matter which side does or it how. - A UUCP node will hold messages received by one node, but intended for another, until it makes/receives a call from the destination system or intermediate. You can have a "leaf" system that calls into a hub system regularly but never receives calls, and it can still bidirectionally communicate due to the above. It'll be slow depending on the call schedule but it worked in the 70's. :) It's a lot of work though because you have to specify all your nodes, links, and forwarding manually. You also have to integrate it with your UNIX mailer to get standard mail tools working with it, but it wasn't too hard with postfix.

jes 4y ago
I liked it too, when I used it. It's been decades, though. I think you're right about the use model and its benefits. uw-beaver!tikal!jes :-)
themadturk 4y ago
I used UUCP on a Kaypro 10 CP/M machine in the early 90s to access email at a local ISP. It took some doing to get set up, but worked really well.
- jes 4y ago
  Was this a port to CP/M? The Kaypro 10 was a Z80A cpu, right?
  - themadturk 4y ago
    I really don't remember anymore, but I know there was at least one version of UUCP on the old Oakland CP/M software archives. It was at least 1993 when I was doing this; CP/M was a hobby alongside my DOS machine.
Karrot_Kream 4y ago
If you want a "modern" take on UUCP, there's NNCP [1] which encrypts packets and offers a TCP transfer mode out of the box. It also has the concept of multicast arenas to send packets to multiple hosts at a time. There's no real concept of paths, but you can write one atop NNCP if you'd like. [1a]: https://www.complete.org/nncp/ https://www.complete.org/nncp/ a site with info about NNCP [1b]: http://www.nncpgo.org/ http://www.nncpgo.org/ the official site. There's also a Matrix room and an IRC channel for questions and general community if you're interested.

zzo38computer 4y ago

If you want to set up a NNTP server, you can do so; I have my own NNTP server set up, and others can also do. I wrote a program called "sqlnetnews"; there is also "WendzelNNTP"; and you can also use some of the more complicated ones such as INN, etc.

jes 4y ago
I really appreciate the advice. I'll check it out.

Karrot_Kream 4y ago

If you want a "modern" take on UUCP, there's NNCP [1] which encrypts packets and offers a TCP transfer mode out of the box. [1a]: https://www.complete.org/nncp/ https://www.complete.org/nncp/ a site with info about NNCP [1b]: http://www.nncpgo.org/ http://www.nncpgo.org/ the official site. There's also a Matrix room and an IRC channel for questions and general community if you're interested.