As a Fidonet newbie, one thing I've yet to master is FREQing files. Also, as someone trying to enforce a self-imposed exile from the internet, FREQing suddenly seems very cool and useful.

Is this still something which is done? I sort of know the answer to this one - because I can see the file league tables in (the excellent) Fidogazette.

But they seem to be weather charts, on the whole. Is it possible to FREQ a list of files for another BBS and request anything there? I have read something about Magic Names, for this purpose I believe, but would like to know if this system is still operational.

The BBS I call doesn't have extensive files for my OS of choice (ok, none). Is it possible for me to FREQ a file list from another BBS, and then specific files off that board?

Thanks!
--- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

Hello Simon,

As a Fidonet newbie, one thing I've yet to master is FREQing files.
Also, as someone trying to enforce a self-imposed exile from the
internet, FREQing suddenly seems very cool and useful.

FREQing files has always been cool and usefull.. :)

Is this still something which is done? I sort of know the answer to
this one - because I can see the file league tables in (the excellent) Fidogazette.

Back in the dial-up days file requesting was easy to setup in mailers like BinkleyTerm and FrontDoor, and also other mailer available at the time.

That's not always the case today with binkp mailers. It can be done with binkd but a third party SRIF utility will be needed to be installed and setup.

But they seem to be weather charts, on the whole. Is it possible to
FREQ a list of files for another BBS and request anything there? I
have read something about Magic Names, for this purpose I believe, but would like to know if this system is still operational.

In some cases, yes. The software I run currently doesn't have an all files list, something we should work on.

The BBS I call doesn't have extensive files for my OS of choice (ok, none). Is it possible for me to FREQ a file list from another BBS, and then specific files off that board?

If you read the FIDO-REQ, ALLFIX_FILE, or FDN_ANNOUNCE areas, nodes posting those new files likely do support file requests and magic names. Try freqing FILES from one of those BBSs and probably you will get an all files list. :)

Ttyl :-),
Al

--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

On Jan 19, 2020 12:05pm, Simon Geddes wrote to All:

As a Fidonet newbie, one thing I've yet to master is FREQing files.
Also, as someone trying to enforce a self-imposed exile from the
internet, FREQing suddenly seems very cool and useful.

FREQ is BBS specific as explained in the previous reply.

However there is the Fidonet FILEFIND echo if your looking for a specific
file, see below on use. You will have to go the specific BBS to d/l the file.

A quote from the allfix.doc:

=== Cut ===
3.2 Mail transfer and the FileFind system

The FileFind system offers people the ability to search for files
via echomail by writing messages addressed to the name "ALLFIX",
without quotes. The files, file specifications, and keywords
(preceded by a '/') are placed on the subject line. The message
body may be left empty.

ALLFIX will scan the configured message areas and process all
FileFind requests. It will scan the BBS file areas and if any
matches are found, it will write a reply in the appropriate area.

Since the FileFind requests are sent via echomail, one request may
receive multiple replies. One problem with this system is that the
flow of mail may easily get out of hand. ALLFIX has a number of
features to reduce the amount of mail. First, no more than 15
files will be included in a reply. Second, it has the ability to
ignore any local FileFind requests. Third, ALLFIX will not
process FileFind requests that contain less than 4 non-wildcard
characters (ie. characters other than the '?' and '*' wildcards).
Lastly, ALLFIX has the ability to ignore FileFind requests that
are older than the configured number of days.

To facilitate searching for files, ALLFIX supports two elementary
boolean operators; AND and OR. These operators may be used between
filespecs and keywords.
=== Cut ===

Terry

... Platinum Xpress & Wildcat!..... Nice!!!!
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
* Origin: The File Bank BBS! https://tfb-bbs.org (3:640/1321) (3:640/1321)

Re: FREQing
By: Alan Ianson to Simon Geddes on Sun Jan 19 2020 01:53 pm

Back in the dial-up days file requesting was easy to setup in mailers like

BinkleyTerm

and FrontDoor, and also other mailer available at the time.

I have something called TrapDoor for the Amiga. Have only scanned the instructions, but I see it allows you to set yourself up as a Point, or to use it to handle the fido traffic to a BBS. This might be the thing I need then.

If you read the FIDO-REQ, ALLFIX_FILE, or FDN_ANNOUNCE areas, nodes posting

those new

files likely do support file requests and magic names. Try freqing FILES

from one of

those BBSs and probably you will get an all files list. :)

Brilliant, will give that a go. Exciting indeed! :)
--- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

Re: FREQing
By: Simon Geddes to Alan Ianson on Mon Jan 20 2020 01:20 pm

Re: FREQing
By: Alan Ianson to Simon Geddes on Sun Jan 19 2020 01:53 pm

Back in the dial-up days file requesting was easy to setup in mailers like BinkleyTerm and FrontDoor, and also other mailer available at the time.

I have something called TrapDoor for the Amiga. Have only scanned the instructions, but I see it allows you to set yourself up as a Point, or to use it to handle the fido traffic to a BBS. This might be the thing I need then.

If you read the FIDO-REQ, ALLFIX_FILE, or FDN_ANNOUNCE areas, nodes posting those new files likely do support file requests and magic names. Try freqing FILES from one of those BBSs and probably you will get an all files list. :)

Brilliant, will give that a go. Exciting indeed! :)

Since you're posting from Vertrauen (my BBS), I thought I'd like you know that you can send file request (FREQ) netmail messages from Vertrauen by creating a netmail message to the file request process at the hub you choose and placing "FR:<filename>" in the subject of the message. The "FR:" means file request and the <filename> must be replaced with the filename (or magic name) you are requesting. After sending a FREQ netmail, you should later get a response from the file request processor at the node you sent the message too, possibly with your requested file attached and ready for you to download from the BBS (Vertrauen), e.g. using ZModem.

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #73:
SyncTERM (created by Deuce) contains portions of Synchronet and SEXYZ code. Norco, CA WX: 62.6øF, 65.0% humidity, 6 mph E wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
--- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

On 22/01/2020 6:46 p.m., Rob Swindell : Simon Geddes wrote:

..you can send file request (FREQ) netmail messages
from Vertrauen by creating a netmail message to the file request
process at the hub you choose and placing "FR: <filename>" in
the subject of the message.

Very interesting. When did you implement that at your system?

--- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/60.9.1
* Origin: nntp://rbb.fidonet.fi - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)

Re: FREQing
By: August Abolins to Rob Swindell on Thu Jan 23 2020 05:35 pm

On 22/01/2020 6:46 p.m., Rob Swindell : Simon Geddes wrote:

..you can send file request (FREQ) netmail messages
from Vertrauen by creating a netmail message to the file request process at the hub you choose and placing "FR: <filename>" in
the subject of the message.

Very interesting. When did you implement that at your system?

Likely 1992 or 1993. The user does require a special exemption (the 'F' exemption) to enable this option, but your user account on Vertrauen now has it. :-)

digital man

This Is Spinal Tap quote #14:
The Boston gig has been cancelled. [Don't] worry, it's not a big college town. Norco, CA WX: 72.0øF, 34.0% humidity, 0 mph WSW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)

At 3:46 PM on 22 Jan 20, Rob Swindell said to Simon Geddes:

Since you're posting from Vertrauen (my BBS), I thought I'd like you
know that you can send file request (FREQ) netmail messages from
Vertrauen by creating a netmail message to the file request process at
the hub you choose and placing "FR:<filename>" in the subject of the message. The "FR:" means file request and the <filename> must be
replaced with the filename (or magic name) you are requesting. After sending a FREQ netmail, you should later get a response from the file request processor at the node you sent the message too, possibly with
your requested file attached and ready for you to download from the BBS (Vertrauen), e.g. using ZModem.

Firstly, thank you for your reply. And providing such a super BBS!

Some of the terms here I don't fully understand - so rather than asking lots
of newbie questions, this is my signal to go back to my fido docs and gen up
a bit, before coming back to this advice and giving it a go.


* Q-Blue 2.4 *
--- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
* Origin: Vertrauen - [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net (1:103/705)