=============================================================================  ECHOMAIL ============================================================================= Echomail. For years a keyword in the computerworld, computers all over the world or in specific region are 'connected' in a network. The advantage of these networks is simple but effective. Key in a message on your local BBS and in a short time that message is spread to all connected computers. Asking questions, dumping an advertisement or simple chatting are just a few of the possible ways to reach your fellow Amigauser. Next to the 'professional' networks like Internet, Usenet and FidoNet several small networks emerged but only a few really stayed in business. Most of the time those networks cover a special interest. The Dutch Amiga Net (Nederlands AmigaNet, NLA) specialises in the Amiga and currently only has Dutch areas that also expand to Belgium but when the demand is obvious English area's are just an inch away. In fact the preceding tagname is already chosen, it's EUA (EUropean Amiganet) By the way if your head is spinning of the technical terms used here then take a look at the end of this article and read the explaning wordlist first! NLA is a very young organisation. November 1991 PARA_NET (A network of Paragon BBSs) merged into the current network. The organising men behind NLA are Bart Schraa (ZEC Zone Echomail Coordinator) and Leo Elsinga (REC Regional Echomail Coordinator). Bart takes care of the day-to-day coordination of the network and should be the man to maintain the foreign links in the near future. Leo coordinates the national echomail and is one of the prominent writers of hilarious AND serious messages. The current network has links to more than 30 Amiga BBSs in Holland. The problem is that not every Amigafreak can call cheap to a local BBS on NLA. One of the goals is to get a perfect spread of nodes and hubs so everyone has a connection in his telephonearea. CHEAP RATE The Dutch telephone company (PTT) has cheap rates for calling inside your area. Effectively this about 6 times cheaper than calling all over Holland. Currently it is possible to call these numbers on the cheap rate. Find your area-number in one of the groups and all numbers in that group are on the cheap rate. The HUBS are marked with a star. * 078 078, 01680-01689, 01800-01809, 01830-01869 01803 010, 078, 079, 01793, 01800-01809, 01820-01829 01840-01869, 01890-01899 01840 078, 01800-01809, 01820-01859 * 02503 020, 023, 02500-02529, 02550, 02900-02909, 02960-02979 075 020, 072, 075, 02200-02209, 02510, 02519, 02550, 02900-02909, 02960-02969, 02980-02999 020 020, 023, 075, 02500-02509, 02900-02909, 02940-02949, 02960-02999, 03240-03249 02230 02220-02249, 02270-02279 050 050, 05900-05909, 05920-05929, 05940-05969, 05980-05989 * 01187 01100-01109, 01130-01139, 01170-01199 01140 01100-01109, 01130-01159, 01190-01199 * 01736 010, 015, 070, 079, 01730-01749, 01751,01793,01890-01899 01880 010, 01740-01749, 01810-01819, 01860-01899 010 010, 015, 079, 01730-01749, 01793, 01800-01819, 01860-01869, 01880-01899 015 010, 015, 01610-01629, 04110-04119, 04160-04169 04240-04259, 04970-04979, 04990-04999 070 015, 070, 071, 079, 01710-01719, 01730-01749, 01751, 01793 071 070, 071, 079, 01710-01729, 01751, 01793, 02520-02529 * 03407 030, 03400-03409, 03430-03439, 03450-03489 030 030, 03400-03409, 03430-03439, 03450-03489 * 040 040, 04900-04909, 04920-04939, 04950-04959 04970-04979, 04990-04999 045 043, 045, 04400-04409, 04450-04459, 04490-04499 04920 040, 04130-04139, 04900-04909, 04920-04939 04990-04999, 08850-08859 04998 013, 040, 04110-04119, 04130-04139, 04240-04259, 04900-04909 04920-04929, 04970-04979, 04990-04999 If you can't find your area-number it is not possible for you to call cheap but consider to become a node if you run a BBS other might benefit also. AREATAGS To create a structure in the vast amount of messages every subject has it's own 'areatag'. So if you want to write a message then first check in which area it belongs and then start writing. A small list of area's in use now follows ... NLA_CHAT : Peter Kist ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chat (Kletsen) is THE area to joke around, talk about subjects that don't belong in other area's. Subjects like the weather of today, television pro- grams or the fact of life are the talk of the day. Generally this area is very busy so if you want to keep up with the conversations then read the messages frequently. NLA_COMMON : Erwin Dekker ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Common is about normal things and more on the subject of computers rather than joking around. The common subject is echomail. Discussions about these subjects are allowed ;-) NLA_SOFTWARE : Marcel Offermans ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Software is where you can read and learn about latest versions of sofware packages and reports on fixes and new features. Newsfeeds from all over the world (e.g. other e-mail nets), magazines and softwarehouses. NLA_TRADE : Roy Aberkrom ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trade is where you can advertise to sell your hard and software but also other non-computerised things. Most of the time this area has a lot of interest and succes. NLA_QUESTIONS : John Van Dijk ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The questions are where you can ventilate all your questions on a lot of topics. A lot of people read these area's and chances are good that somebody knows the answer to your hot-question. Remember that the know- ledge of all NLA readers in total is massive ! NLA_TRICKS : Marco Van Der Heide ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Publish your tricks here. For example secret doors in programs. Unmentioned features or cunning solutions to problems. For example a smart batch-file. NLA_PROGRAMMING : Marcel Offermans ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ultimate area to get in touch with other programmers. C, Pascal and assembly are just a few languages here which are currently in the picture. In fact a c-training is currently published in this area. NLA_HARDWARE : Ron Klinkien ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talk about your hardware projects, computer-repairs or sadly your broken computer and how to fix it .... for example, you have a rather exotic harddisk and you wonder if you can connect it to your Amiga. Well this is the area to ask. NLA_PROBLEMS : Leo Elsinga ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Got any problems, tell uncle Leo all about it. Most of the time these are problems about configuring programs and get software to work properly. Ofcourse it's allowed to answer yourself. NLA_GRAPHICS : Marcel Offermans ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Graphics from Deluxe Paint to animations and ray-tracing. That's the topic here. The idea must be pretty obvious. NLA_MUSIC : Jan Paul ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not only Amiga music is the talk here but also popmusic and the likes. Most of the time subjects like new musicprograms (and playing routines), new albums and (Amiga)musicians who publish music are hot items. NLA_ADVERTS : Peter Kist ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advertise here for your BBS, friends or your business but don't do it too often. NLA_JOKES : Peter Kist ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The funniest, dirtiest and stupidest jokes must be published here. You don't want to hold those jokes for yourself do you ? NLA_HACKING : Peter Kist ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- About hacking in general. NLA_AMIGADOS : Leo Elsinga ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- AmigaDOS, scripts, tricks and commandos is topic here. It seems that a lot of these things could use an extra docfile .... NLA_NEWFILES : Erwin Dekker ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newfiles that have crashed in the connected BBSs NLA_USE_NET : Marcel Offermans ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Messages from USENET (a large and professional echomail net, read expensive) are displayed here for extra information. The messages which appear here are most of the time from the COMP.SYS.AMIGA newsgroups. On top of that there are special area's for testing, sysops and hubs only. The names of the guys behind the tags are from the moderators. Moderators make sure that the few rules of NLA are correctly used. The rules on NLA are simple. No unnecessay quoting, no bad language or discriminating language, use the area's what they are meant for and don't polute the net with stupid messages. Take out personal 'wars' via netmail. WANNA JOIN ? If this article interested you and you'd like to become a member which is completely free of charge then you could call one of these BBS numbers and write a message to the sysop. He will help you further. It is always interesting to download the latest NLA-***.LHA file where *** stands for the weeknumber. This file contains all the information mentioned here but more and updated. Echo BBS Dordrecht 078-180305 HOST NL 14:100/1 Amiga Connection 02503-25063 Hub A'dam 14:100/2 C.G.C. Groningen 050-252612 Hub Groningen 14:100/3 Janson Soft 01187-1625 Hub Zeeland 14:100/4 Amiga Penthe #1 01736-98146 HUB R'dam 14:100/5 Homebase 03407-5643 Hub Utrecht 14:100/6 AmiGhost 040-480556 Hub Eindhoven 14:100/7 Oberon 32-2-7313489 HOST Belgie 14:200/1 Connecting you can be possible within the day and if you have difficulties setting up your software for it then we could help you also. The BBSs on NLA are published monthly and this is what it looks like .... Echo BBS Dordrecht 078 - 180305 AnSie BBS 010 - 4388965 NASA HQ 01803 - 20437 Amiga Penthe BBS #1 01736 - 98146 Amiga Hardware BBS 01840 - 17373 Amiga Penthe BBS #2 015 - 612231 Starlight BBS 02230 - 46288 C.G.C. Groningen 050 - 252612 Amiga Limburg 045 - 231803 Amiga DSI #001 020 - 6892683 Janson Soft 01187 - 1625 Amiga DSI #002 020 - 6814157 Amiga Sign 071 - 216180 The Animal Farm 020 - 6312403 Amiga On Line BS 023 - 282002 Amiga Connection 02503 - 25063 HIAmiga 01880 - 44653 AmiGhost 040 - 480556 BBS De Verdeler 010 - 4126107 BBS Wizard 010 - 4864201 Shadow BBS 01880 - 14923 Home Base 03407 - 5643 The Black Hole 030 - 940197 ASB BBS 075 - 282034 Digital Frontier 02503 - 27458 The Hell 070 - 3468783 Bedroom Buddies 04920 - 28248 Tinbergen Techniek 070 - 3452879 Kees Place 08340 - 62660 Mothership Connection 020 - 6892708 Brainwave 01140 - 10043 Demolition 040 - 573503 Amiga Limburg 045 - 231803 Enigma 04998 - 93103 Flying Dutchman 040 - 573867 Hawk's Nest 03463 - 52571 If you want to join us please contact the Sysop of this BBS SAMPLE SESSION If you are new to echomail we will try to help you as much as possible. A sample session of logging on to HomeBase BBS may help you to understand the topic a bit easier. Note that the specific keys and menus most of the time are different on other BBS's but the idea behind it is practicly the same. Keypresses are between <> characters ... Welcome to HomeBase BBS, you're sysop here is blabla etc etc (Enter your full realname and password if you have one) (If you are new enter and this will take you to a questionnaire fill this in and read everything carefully) (A screen with some general information comes up) (New bulletins are showed and the computer checks wether you have recieved some mail after that you should be in the main menu!) MAIN MENU Press for the amiga menu. Press for messages. If correct you're now in the message area of HomeBase with Amigaspecific areas only. Most of them should be from NLA. Choose an area you want for example <1> for the chat area. You now see the standaard message control menu. With these commands you can read, write, reply, quote and much more. But simply press to begin reading the waiting messages. Type (in the message control menu) to reply (beantwoorden) for next message (or simply press return) for entering a message (schrijf bericht) A special key which should work in every menu is the key. With this key you can call the SysOp and he could help you further if something doesn't work. EXPLANING WORDLIST Areatags = Names of the echomail areas, these tags hold the information in which area the message belongs. BBS = Bulletin Board System, a computer which you can call using a modem. This computer offers some services like software. Chatting = Talking via messages or direct via computerterminals. Most of the time for leasure sake. Downloading = Transferring software from the BBS to your computer. Echomail = Sometimes called e-mail is network mail. Type in one message and everybody can read it. Normally private messages in these areas aren't allowed. Netmail = Private mail, only send to nodes which are necessary for relaying the messages. Node = Crossroad of messagetraffic. The node sends messages to HUB or HOST and gets messages from the BBS users or points. Moderator = He or she tries to keep the messages on-topic and warns people who don't via netmail Point = Someone who gets all the mail by having connected with his BOSS mailer, this is a very convenient way. Simply get your mail and reply to them. The next session new messages will be waiting and your replies are send. SysOp = System Operator, the person who controls and maintains the BBS. Uploading = Transfering software from your computer to the BBS. =============================================================================  ECHOMAIL =============================================================================