In some of the network echos, I've seen several messages that report you can "freq" files. I understand what the file request means. I've just never been able to find any documentation on how to properly format a netmail to accomplish this task. Can anyone point me to any documentation or a "how to" on freq'ing?

Thanks for any help on enlightening me!

ogg
Sysop, Altair IV BBS
altairiv.ddns.net:2323

... Confucius say: "Man who runs behind car gets exhausted"

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/01/28 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Altair IV BBS (618:200/54)

ogg wrote to All <=-

In some of the network echos, I've seen several messages that report
you can "freq" files. I understand what the file request means. I've just never been able to find any documentation on how to properly
format a netmail to accomplish this task. Can anyone point me to any documentation or a "how to" on freq'ing?

Thanks for any help on enlightening me!

http://ftsc.org/docs/fsc-0013.001 describes the format, but not much
about how to. I used TIMED occasionally for netmail and there's an
option for setting a file attach and file request flag.

http://ftsc.org/docs/fts-0008.003 has some more information, apparently
they're specially formatted packets. I thought they might just be
netmails with the filename in the subject and a FREQ bit set.


... ZIMA TASTES BETTER WHEN IT'S ILLEGAL
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (618:300/16)

ogg wrote to All <=-

In some of the network echos, I've seen several messages that report you can "freq" files. I understand what the file request means. I've
just never been able to find any documentation on how to properly format a netmail to accomplish this task. Can anyone point me to any documentation or a "how to" on freq'ing?

Thanks for any help on enlightening me!

http://ftsc.org/docs/fsc-0013.001 describes the format, but not much
about how to. I used TIMED occasionally for netmail and there's an
option for setting a file attach and file request flag.

http://ftsc.org/docs/fts-0008.003 has some more information, apparently they're specially formatted packets. I thought they might just be
netmails with the filename in the subject and a FREQ bit set.

Thanks for the links Kurt!

ogg
Sysop, Altair IV BBS
altairiv.ddns.net:2323

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/01/28 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Altair IV BBS (618:200/54)

Thanks for any help on enlightening me!

Some mail editors can set the "FREQ" flag on a netmail message (such as GoldEd/GoldEd+ and FleetStreet; pretty sure TimEd and MsgEd do it too). You then put the filename in the subject line of the message and the message can
be blank.

I do believe many of the BBS packages that have their own internal areafix/filefix bots can accept a netmail with "FREQ <filename>" in the
subject but I am not really sure.

Nick, Andrew Leary, or Andrew Pamment...any comment from you three? (Nick develops D'Bridge, Andrew Leary is the lead developer on MBSE BBS, and
Andrew Pamment develops Magicka BBS.)

-- Sean



--- MBSE BBS v1.0.8.3 (FreeBSD-amd64)
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (618:618/1)

On 02 Mar 2023, digimaus said the following...

Thanks for any help on enlightening me!

Some mail editors can set the "FREQ" flag on a netmail message (such as GoldEd/GoldEd+ and FleetStreet; pretty sure TimEd and MsgEd do it too). You then put the filename in the subject line of the message and the message can be blank.

I do believe many of the BBS packages that have their own internal areafix/filefix bots can accept a netmail with "FREQ <filename>" in the subject but I am not really sure.

This helps!

Nick, Andrew Leary, or Andrew Pamment...any comment from you three? (Nick develops D'Bridge, Andrew Leary is the lead developer on MBSE BBS, and Andrew Pamment develops Magicka BBS.)

-- Sean

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.8.3 (FreeBSD-amd64)
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (618:618/1)

I'll run with this and see how it goes.

Thanks Sean!

Scott

ogg
Sysop, Altair IV BBS
altairiv.ddns.net:2323

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/01/28 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Altair IV BBS (618:200/54)

On 01 Mar 23 21:02:50, Ogg said the following to All:

In some of the network echos, I've seen several messages that report you can "freq" files. I understand what the file request means. I've just never be able to find any documentation on how to properly format a netmail to accomplish this task. Can anyone point me to any documentation or a "how to on freq'ing?

Freq means file-requesting and can mean two different things. A "bot" which answers your Netmail and sends you the file, or the functionality of a Fidonet mailer that supports Bark or Wazoo style requests.

I am not familiar with systems that have Netmail bots to send files because this could have potential for abuse and several systems may not have file attachment-routing enabled in their mailers by default. By the time one sends
a Netmail to a bot and wait for a reply, they could "Google it". It appears that often there must be a special routing arrangement involved in the Sysops who run systems with file-bots.

What you will likely find is the latter, and there is no Netmail involved - A system generates a ".REQ" file containing the filenames or magic-names of
files to request. A magic-name is simply an alias for a file. For example, magic-name MICRONET could mean to request the latest Micronet nodelist. In some cases, special requests to password-protected directories can be made.

The mailer then directly connects / Crash calls the other system via dialup modem using Emsi, Wazoo or FTS-0001... Or in some cases Internet BinkD. The .REQ file is sent and the mailer waits usually between 30 seconds to 2 minutes for the other system to fulfill the request and send back the desired files.

The real fun is watching what happens to that .REQ file when it gets received on the desired BBS that desired file is on.

The desired BBS must first make sure only certain files may be sent, sometimes requests can be denied as most mailers have sets of rules and security policy that are often applied to stop abuse or "leeching" everything from that person's BBS. How many times did the caller Freq today, how much KB's or MB's worth of files were transferred... how often does he Freq restricted files.

The mailer must also take into account what happens if the request is for a file that is on a network share, CD or DVD drive; multiple requests spanning multiple directories may need to be indexed or staged so the Freq request completes in the short turn-around time allowed. In some cases a BBS Sysop may choose not to put his whole file collection up for access because his mailer simply cannot crawl through a large collection in time... unless the mailer uses a complex set of database/index tables to speed things up for him.

You will not find many BBS's today that support FREQ's by BinkD because the BinkD system on the desired BBS must invoke an external process to read the generated SRIF (System-requesting information file) and read the received
.REQ to figure out what files to send back in that same session. This is
called an external SRIF or FREQ processor and these programs often are beyond the scope of most Sysops to make then run... except for the sadomasochists.

The simple act of Freq-ing files involves a LOT of logic and programming in the software supporting it. It is almost as complex as handling BBS callers.

D'Bridge can do all of this with just one menu command.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (618:500/24)

On 02 Mar 2023, Nick Andre said the following...

On 01 Mar 23 21:02:50, Ogg said the following to All:

In some of the network echos, I've seen several messages that report you

"freq" files. I understand what the file request means. I've just neve

able to find any documentation on how to properly format a netmail to accomplish this task. Can anyone point me to any documentation or a "ho

on freq'ing?

Freq means file-requesting and can mean two different things. A "bot" which answers your Netmail and sends you the file, or the functionality of a Fidonet mailer that supports Bark or Wazoo style requests.

I am not familiar with systems that have Netmail bots to send files because this could have potential for abuse and several systems may not have file attachment-routing enabled in their mailers by default. By the time one sends a Netmail to a bot and wait for a reply, they could
"Google it". It appears that often there must be a special routing arrangement involved in the Sysops who run systems with file-bots.

What you will likely find is the latter, and there is no Netmail
involved - A system generates a ".REQ" file containing the filenames or magic-names of files to request. A magic-name is simply an alias for a file. For example, magic-name MICRONET could mean to request the latest Micronet nodelist. In some cases, special requests to
password-protected directories can be made.

The mailer then directly connects / Crash calls the other system via dialup modem using Emsi, Wazoo or FTS-0001... Or in some cases Internet BinkD. The .REQ file is sent and the mailer waits usually between 30 seconds to 2 minutes for the other system to fulfill the request and
send back the desired files.

The real fun is watching what happens to that .REQ file when it gets received on the desired BBS that desired file is on.

The desired BBS must first make sure only certain files may be sent, sometimes requests can be denied as most mailers have sets of rules and security policy that are often applied to stop abuse or "leeching" everything from that person's BBS. How many times did the caller Freq today, how much KB's or MB's worth of files were transferred... how
often does he Freq restricted files.

The mailer must also take into account what happens if the request is
for a file that is on a network share, CD or DVD drive; multiple
requests spanning multiple directories may need to be indexed or staged
so the Freq request completes in the short turn-around time allowed. In some cases a BBS Sysop may choose not to put his whole file collection
up for access because his mailer simply cannot crawl through a large collection in time... unless the mailer uses a complex set of database/index tables to speed things up for him.

You will not find many BBS's today that support FREQ's by BinkD because the BinkD system on the desired BBS must invoke an external process to read the generated SRIF (System-requesting information file) and read
the received .REQ to figure out what files to send back in that same session. This is called an external SRIF or FREQ processor and these programs often are beyond the scope of most Sysops to make then run... except for the sadomasochists.

The simple act of Freq-ing files involves a LOT of logic and programming in the software supporting it. It is almost as complex as handling BBS callers.

D'Bridge can do all of this with just one menu command.

Nick

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (618:500/24)

Thanks Nick. After perusing the FTSC doc's, it was obvious that the
automation was significant. Having done some file requesting via fidonet in the mid 90's, I was familiar with what it did, not with the complexity.

My main interest was seeing some bbs's advertise the capability to do it recently, but not the how. I could not find any authoritative articles describing how "I" should do it. Thanks for the info. I'm gathering much
data and may have to consolidate it.

Scott

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/01/28 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Altair IV BBS (618:200/54)