* Number nine, number nine, number nine, ... Number nine, number nine, number nine, ... [This was written a few years back. I'm running it without contacting¨ the author. Note that with the advent of TICK/FLEA, a lot of technical¨ hurdles are gone... With the PGP package, as it exists without change in MSDOS excutable¨ form, exceedingly high security could be had for "free". Each net would¨ simply generate their nodelist fragment as a DIFF, PGP it, and FLEA/TICK¨ it. Whenever a file appears in the ZnnnLST directory, you simply handle¨ it as a NODEDIFF. That's all. (You could even manually rename each¨ incoming file NODEDIFF.1, NODEDIFF.2, etc so existing software would¨ accept it! --tomj] Decentralizing the FidoNet Nodelist - Decentralizing FidoNet¨ Power Randy Bush 1:105/6 16 Jun 89 Think of FidoNet as a confederation of local nets. Forget regions. ¨ Forget zones except as a way of saving telco charges by concentrating¨ messages and as a way to segment the total nodelist. FidoNet returns to¨ being a collection of local nets, as it was before the region and zone¨ hierarchies were added just a few years ago. In each zone there is an echo, call it ZnnnLIST, to which every NC in¨ that zone subscribes. In the North American zone, it is Z001LIST. For¨ the moment, do not worry about the security or reliability of this echo,¨ but things like sequence numbers, checksums, and RSA public key¨ signatures can be used to address such problems (you are aware that RSA¨ can be used to send a validatable signature, yes?). When an NC's net (or hub) segment undergoes significant change¨ (significant is that which would be likely to affect callers from¨ outside one's own net), then the NC posts a processed version of that¨ segment to the ZnnnLIST echo. The processing could be to create a¨ difference file, compress the file, maybe RSA signature encode it, or¨ whatever else is deemed necessary. A simplistic scheme to start is a¨ collection of lines of the form add z:n/n del z:n/n chg z:n/n similar to the prerevolutionary nodediff file. By placing the processed segment in the ZnnnLIST echo, each net's¨ nodelist segment(s) will be automatically distributed to all other nets¨ within that zone. This is the essence of the scheme. Each NC automatically accumulates the changes to the zone nodelist as¨ they pass by in the ZnnnLIST echo for their zone. Once a week (or two),¨ they create a difference file against last week's accumulated zone¨ nodelist, and distribute this new difference file within their local¨ net. The nodes within the net are thus insulated from all change, and¨ do not have to change their prerevolutionary batch files or programs. The zonegates exchange periodic diffference files for their zones, and¨ make the lists (or difference files) of the other zones available within¨ their own, likely via the local ZnnnLIST echo. Since the advent of¨ zonegates, one need not know much about a node in another zone, only the¨ sysop's name and the node number. So we could choose to reduce the size¨ of lists we keep of other zones, if the thought is not too scary. Note that a first prototype of this methodology could be constructed¨ from existing software plus a few days of coding. -------- Credits: o FidoNet is a trademark of Tom Jennings. o UucpNet/Internet distribute the maps via their equivalents of¨ echomail. o This idea in this general form was first spoken of by Tom Jennings¨ in the FIDOBETA echo in May '89. o Ken Ganshirt refocussed my attention on it when I whined about the¨ current FidoNet hierarchic power structure.