Newsgroups: alt.bbs.internet
Subject: Internet posting on RIME
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 07:14:00

hennessy@acsu.buffalo.edu writes:

-> My brother at home runs a BBS as a hobby, and he gets a
-> limited RIME feed (about 20 newsgroups).  Is there a way
-> I can post news to the RIME groups so he can read them?

I run the RIME regional hub for New Hampshire and Maine.  At
the present there is no Internet gateway to/from RIME.  This
is something that's been in the RSN camp for close to a year
now.

Sometime in September we on RIME were forced to convert to
all new network software as a condition of continued access
to RIME.  This new software has a LOT of problems and has
resulted in a lot of instability on the RIME network.  So,
getting the bugs beat down and getting some reasonable level
of stability onto the network is our highest priority.
Once that task is done, Dr. Bonnie Anthony, RIME's capo di
tutti capi, has indicated an interest in establishing some
sort of RIME <-> Internet gateway.

-> I know of the fido-internet gateways, but he doesn't
-> want to use fido because they've been extraordinarily
-> rude to him.

<sigh>.  They don't call it Fight-O-Net for nothing, I
guess.

For what it's worth, if you're expecting anything anywhere
near the performance and throughput from any Fido-style
gateway that you get with regular Internet mail, you're in
for a rude surprise.  All MessDOS networks are strictly
store-and-forward systems, with mail exchanged a few times a
day at the most (once or twice a day, most often), and in
most cases at least a three-level hierarchy of nodes and
hubs.  On RIME, for example, in which every message on the
network routes through the nethub in Bethesda, MD, your
message could go through as many as seven relay points
(origin BBS -> regional hub -> "superregional" hub -> nethub
-> "superregional" hub -> regional hub -> destination BBS).
Mail turnaround time is usually measured in days rather than
in minutes or hours like it is on the Internet.  Also,
messages sizes are limited, so things like subscribing to
mailing lists and exchanging large UUENCODEd files don't
work too well ... and in all likelihood will be disallowed
on RIME anyway, whenever they get the gateway running.

-> Since we're both paying for access (he thru phone bills,
-> me thru tuition bills), I don't really feel like dialing
-> up a pay RIME BBS around here in the bflo area.

I only have a relatively old RIME nodelist (several months
old, at least) but following are all of the RIME BBSs that
were listed in the 716 area code:

Buffalo      Pier 1 Exchange            (716) 875-0283
Cheektowaga  The Dark Star              (716) 668-3396
Depew        Copnet of Western New York (716) 656-0063
Rochester    (PC)3                      (716) 723-8489
West Seneca  The Falcon's Nest BBS      (716) 677-2528

I'm sure there are many others now, but as I said I dont'
have the latest nodelist.  One or more of the above may be a
local call to you, and chances are good that it will be free
... free BBSs seem to be the rule rather than the exception
on RIME.

-> Also, does RIME have mail capability?

Not exactly ... it has a facility for sending "Routed
Private" messages which amounts to the same thing except
it's done within a conference (newsgroup) rather than as a
separate process.  However the message routing handlers are
seriously broken at this point ... one of the bugs that
still needs to hit the Roach Motel before they can call the
new software ready to rock and roll.

-> what is the lowest cost way a sysop can obtain a
-> internet feed (several low-volume newsgroups, email)
-> using a DOS platform, in the 914 area code? using
-> proprietary BBS software.

I don't know where 914 is offhand, but I can provide your
brother with RIME conferences and all the Internet mail and
Usenet news he can read (we're the RIME hub for NH and Maine
but there's nothing that says we can't take nodes from
anywhere in the country).  I can probably set him and his
users up with their own Internet ID's ... something like
brother@brothers_bbs.leotech.mv.com or
brother%brothers_bbs@leotech.mv.com ... I'm not exactly sure
how it would work but I am reasonably sure it would work one
way or the other. So long as he is calling out of his state
it doesn't much matter if he calls into the next state or
all the way across the country ... the rates are about the
same and are virtually always cheaper than calling in-state
(I can call San Diego from here in southern New Hampshire
cheaper than I can call Laconia, New Hampshire, which is
about 50 miles away from me).  The RIME stuff he will get as
compressed packets (the way he's doing it now, presumably)
and depending on what type of BBS software he is using (what
type *_is_* he using, btw?) I can most likely provide the
Internet/Usenet stuff as compressed packets also, in what's
called QWK/REP format ... ask him if he can handle that.  He
would be able to download all of it in one call in the
middle of the night when the rates are cheapest, using one
of the MS-DOS "autopilot" programs like Robocomm.  All of
this would cost him a flat rate of $50 per year with no
traffic size limits (so far, anyway ... subject to change
since I pay a per-hour charge for my Internet connection).
Unless his RIME hub is a local call, I'd be surprised if I
can't save him some money.

Hope all this helps .... and hope it's not wildly more than
you really wanted to know <grin>.

 . . . . . ep


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