Welcome to Fidonet Region 10!
Fidonet region 10 covers the western US region - California, Nevada and Hawaii.
What is Fidonet?
FidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems (BBSs). It uses a store and forward system to exchange private (email) and public (forum) messages between the BBSs in the network, as well as other files and protocols in some cases. To save on long distance calling charges when those were expensive, FidoNet used a number of techniques to ensure data was compressed using the then-latest methods of data compression.There are approximately 1000 nodes in Fidonet as of 2019, representing most of the countries of the world. Fidonet message areas cover topics ranging from conspiracy theories, technical support echoes, political echoes and cooking echoes. Participants range from old-time callers, retro technology fanatics, kids wondering where the internet came from and everything in between. The Fidonet file echoes are a great way to collect files. The Fidonews magazine is a weekly magazine of user-contributed content.
Why join Fidonet?
Fidonet offers message and file areas called "echoes", and Fidonet email, called netmail.Fidonet has many message areas to choose from, ranging from general topics to specialized hobby and technical discussions. Most BBS support has been traditionally provided via Fidonet echoes, and once you're on Fidonet, chances are someone on Fidonet is running the same software and is willing to help.
The most up-to-date list of message areas is shared on Fidonet as BACKBONE.NA.
File echoes cover a range of file areas, including the Fidonews weekly magazine, Fidonet nodelist updates, programming files, utilities, games and text files. More information about file echoes is available at http://www.filegate.net/
How do I Join?
The best way to join Fidonet is to begin by participating as a user on
an existing Fido BBS. A great list of Fidonet terms is available at http://www.filegate.net/zone1/terms.html
and will help you understand some of the tech and terminology used in
Fidonet.
- Gain a basic understanding of Fidonet and your software. Please read Fidonet Policy 4. You will also need a current copy of the Fidonet Nodelist.
- Set up your BBS., if not set up already, and configure it for
Fidonet networking.
- Follow the procedure outlined in POLICY4 for joining Fidonet. The request *MUST* come in as a Netmail message. This shows the NC that your system is indeed capable of exchanging mail -- the basic requirement for membership.
- Please be patient. It may take up to 2 weeks for your request to be fully processed and appear in the Nodelist.
FIDONET REGIONS:
