Document: FSC-0062 Version: 001 Date: 10-May-1992 A Proposed Nodelist flag indicating Online Times of a Node David Thomas 2:253/600@fidonet.org Status of this document: This FSC suggests a proposed protocol for the FidoNet(r) community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Distribution of this document is unlimited. Fido and FidoNet are registered marks of Tom Jennings and Fido Software. Purpose ------- There are currently several systems within FidoNet that offer file request or mail holding capabilities but are not continuously online. The only time during which these nodes can be contacted with reference to the nodelist is currently the Zone Mail Hour of the zone to which the systems belong. In practice, mailers can only use the zone mail hour(s) specified by the system in question to contact these nodes, which does not provide for any method of file requesting or calling for echomail that does not conflict with the Policy requirement that no echomail or files be transferred during the zone mail hour. The proposed flag would benefit the mailers in such a way as to provide for them the online times that the node is usually online for, thus cutting on the costs of calling a non-continuous mail node, only to find that it is not available; and also, hopefully preventing annoyance for a sysop whose mailer is being called whilst it is not online, for example in the case of a voice/data shared line. Compatibility ------------- Since the current nodelist format is always being extended and nodelist compilers look for the flags that they know about, there are no expected compatibility problems with the suggestion outlined below. Format of additional nodelist flag ---------------------------------- The proposed nodelist flag has the following form: Txy where x represents the startup time, and y represents the end time, in the following format: +------+----+ +------+----+ +------+----+ +------+----+ +------+----+ |Letter|Time| |Letter|Time| |Letter|Time| |Letter|Time| |Letter|Time| +------+----+ +------+----+ +------+----+ +------+----+ +------+----+ | A |0000| | F |0500| | K |1000| | P |1500| | U |2000| | a |0030| | f |0530| | k |1030| | p |1530| | u |2030| | B |0100| | G |0600| | L |1100| | Q |1600| | V |2100| | b |0130| | g |0630| | l |1130| | q |1630| | v |2130| | C |0200| | H |0700| | M |1200| | R |1700| | W |2200| | c |0230| | h |0730| | m |1230| | r |1730| | w |2230| | D |0300| | I |0800| | N |1300| | S |1800| | X |2300| | d |0330| | i |0830| | n |1330| | s |1830| | x |2330| | E |0400| | J |0900| | O |1400| | T |1900| | | | | e |0430| | j |0930| | o |1430| | t |1930| | | | +------+----+ +------+----+ +------+----+ +------+----+ +------+----+ The case would be relevant. Whereas the case is currently not used by any flags in the document describing the current format of the nodelist, it has to be correct for the CRC calculation to prove correct, and this would be a good use for the case of the letter. If it is necessary to ignore the case, then the upper on-the-hour time should be used, i.e. the time that is listed after the upper-case letter. These times are expressed in GMT (UTC) so that the flag is useful for systems all around the world, without the need for specific time zone information to be included in the nodelist. They do not adjust with daylight saving time for a similar reason. Where necessary, the times can wrap around midnight, so for example, for a node that is online between the hours of 1800 and 0600 GMT, the flag TSG would be a valid indication of this time. If a node changes times when daylight saving time becomes enforced, then this should be taken into account when assigning this flag. It should not be altered just for the specific purpose of adjusting due to daylight saving time, as there will be large difference files generated if these are used. So, for example, my node is online from 2300 to 0800 in local time, which in winter is GMT, but in the summer it becomes BST (British Summer Time). This is one hour ahead of GMT, and the corresponding availability times of my node during the summer period are 2200 to 0700 GMT. Therefore my online times flag would indicate availability between the hours of 2300 and 0700 GMT, so it would be TXH. This flag does not replace the requirement for exclusivity of zone mail hour. However, I believe it to be a neat and compact solution to, what is in my opinion, one of the gravest problems currently facing FidoNet. In FidoNet, most nodes are continuous mail, but it is important for the growth and popularity of FidoNet that non-CM nodes do not receive many mailer calls at times when they are off line. Users are bad enough in this respect. It is also useful for people wishing to contact hubs that are non-CM with mail for a downlink, and for people wishing to file request from a node that is not CM. There is no need for systems that are only online in zone mail hour to adopt this flag; also, there is no need for CM systems to have a need to adopt this flag. With regard to time zones now; this is a complicated topic, so I wish to express an example. Imagine a node in Indiana, USA. It is online for the time period beginning 6 o'clock pm and ending 8 o'clock am. This changes with daylight saving time, so the times expressed effectively become an hour earlier with respect to GMT. Indiana is in the Central time zone, which is 6 hours ahead of GMT. Therefore, the online times in the GMT time zone are availability of the node starts at 1200 GMT and ends at 0200 GMT. During daylight saving time, however, the local time for Indiana would be 5 hours ahead of GMT. The online times during this period are 1300 GMT to 0300 GMT. The smaller period should be expressed, so the online times flag for this node would indicate availability between 1300 and 0200 GMT, which is indicated by the flag TNC. Finally, this nodelist entry is not required by any node. It is supplementary to the #01, #02, #08, #09, #18, #20 flags and their !xx counterparts. It has been suggested to me about the possibility of an additional flag with the same meaning, but having a W as the first letter, indicating that the node is also available for all hours during weekends; however, I believe that the simple inclusion of the single flag indicated above will solve most problems, as it does indicate a period for non-CM nodes during which the node is available. Contact ------- As stated above, my online times are from 2300 to 0800 GMT/BST only, meaning that you should limit your calling to the time period beginning 2300 and ending 0700 GMT unless you know for certain that I am online! Alternatively, you could host-route mail to me. I poll my host daily, so mail should get through to me quite quickly using this route.