Hi Mark,

Tuesday October 22 2013 20:59, you wrote to me:

 ml> On Tue, 22 Oct 2013, Ulrich Schroeter wrote to Simon Bach:

 US>> CDP proposal
 US>> FSP-1016.003  Automatic configuration of Points in Fidonet
 US>> has answered this question regarding echo forwarding lists ....
 US>> in section   3.1.2.1.2 ECHOZZZZ.ZIP and  3.2.2  Transmitting the
 US>> application date

 ml> -> Freq  ECHOLIST

 US>> The only thing to consider ... nodes supporting HotDogED clients
 US>> should add the freq magic ECHOLIST in their system and
 US>> ECHOZZZZ.ZIP to be sent. So on the supporting system the echo
 US>> uplink lists have to be compiled and named ECHOZZZZ.LST and zip'd
 US>> thereafter ...  =;)

 ml> is there anything wrong with sending the existing, published and
 ml> distributed Echolist?

yes, it probably doesn't reflect the nodes "echoes" capabilities

so one node only supports the official "international echoes" (known under
BACKBONE.NA and ELSTYYMM
the next node supports international + zonal + regional specific echoes
and the 3rd supports all node 2 supports + have a list of own nets and local
areas, and also supports some specific areas from other languages ESP.*, BR.*,
RU.*

so you have 3 different potential link partners with 3 different capabilities.
One uses backbone.na + local.na, the next uses list fareas.bbs and a third
uses the standardized ECHO0002.LST that is a local compile of the lists the
node supports

 ml>  is the above perhaps talking about something
 ml> else other than the Echolist?

a local compilation of one or more or many different echo forwarding lists


 ml>  something, perhaps, like the list of
 ml> available areas (%AVAIL) from the feed's uplinks?

some support, some may not ...

 ml>  where are other,
 ml> unlisted, area names to be found?

default path: ask the NEC, REC, ZEC  =;)


 ml>  how is one to know of the existance
 ml> of an area if it is not in the %AVAIL or %LIST areafix responses?

hearsay, discussions in echoes, requests in a sysops chatter

freq echolist from a CDP flagged node in Zone 1 will probably result in a
complete different list than frequesting echolist from a CDP flagged node in
Zone 2, so the localy compiled echolist is as is, a compilation of the echoes
a downlink can request via areafix from the node where the node/point is
connected to. A CDP system schedules a echolist freq monthly, so if new areas
are available, the compiled list will be updated.

The request is a kickoff for connecting to a node, you have no info how
fidonet works, whats echoareas are. Thats why the CDP package starts with a
compiled list of available echoareas a CDP point can request via an option
list.
Here there is no joker available ...
If you want more, and have learnt more you can do more like write a netmail to
areafix of your uplink ... netmail what ?   .-)



 ml> )\/(ark
 ml> -$- FMail/Win32 1.60
 ml>  $ Origin:  (1:3634/12.71)

regards, uli   ;-)

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 * Origin: AMBROSIA - Frankfurt/Main - Germany (2:244/1120)