I used to have all this stuff working for years but for some goddamn reason it's not anymore.

Fidonet (in and outgoing) works fine. Netmail to other networks (in and outgoing) works fine but regular packets (echomail) to other networks does not.

this is from Binkd:

domain fidonet /fido/outbound 2
domain fido alias-for fidonet
domain fidonet.org alias-for fidonet
domain amiganet /fido/amiganet 2
domain fsxnet /fido/fsxnet 2
domain micronet /fido/micronet 2

This is from crashmail.prefs:

INBOUND /fido/inbound/
OUTBOUND /fido/outbound/
STATSFILE /etc/binkd/CrashMail.stats
TEMPDIR /fido/tmp/
CREATEPKTDIR /fido/tmp/
PACKETDIR /fido/packets/


Now, this is not an static error. For some reason, Binkd would send a number of packets to Amiganet and then when I write some more messages it will not touch it.

This file tells Binkd what to send (I think):

ftn@bbsutils:/fido/amiganet.027$ ls
009600c8.try

In the packets directory lies the package itself:

ftn@bbsutils:/fido/packets$ ls
ee2fef00.pkt


I've checked: file permissions, network, DNS. It's all correct. And as I said: it all works with Fidonet.

I have no idea what to try next. Any ideas are welcome.


--- NiKom v2.6.0
* Origin: Delta City (deltacity.se, Vallentuna, Sweden) (2:221/242.0)

So I figured it out, and it's properly silly on my part.

I figured it out. I think.

In Binkd I named the other networks Amiganet, Fsxnet, and so on. But the paths the outgoing stuff was written to was set to /fido/amiganet, /fido/fsxnet and so on.

Naturally, Binkd was looking in /fido/Fsxnet.xxx and /fido/Amiganet.xxx.

Oh the joy of case-sensitive software and operating systems.

Now I'm taking a backup of all configuration files...


--- NiKom v2.6.0
* Origin: Delta City (deltacity.se, Vallentuna, Sweden) (2:221/242.0)

Hey Joacim!

On Tue, 14 Oct 2025 14:05:46 , you wrote:

So I figured it out, and it's properly silly on my part.

I figured it out. I think.

In Binkd I named the other networks Amiganet, Fsxnet, and so on. But
the paths the outgoing stuff was written to was set to /fido/amiganet, /fido/fsxnet and so on.

Naturally, Binkd was looking in /fido/Fsxnet.xxx and /fido/Amiganet.xxx.

That's because your binkd config file specifies to look in those directories. When using your default zone "2" for every network, it will automatically create the hex extensions on your directories. When using this method (4D addressing), it is better to use one outbound directory, ie:

domain fidonet /fido/outbound 2
domain fsxnet /fido/outbound 2
domain othernet /fido/outbound 2

This will use 'outbound' as your fidonet outbound (default), outbound.015 for fsxnet, etc.

If Crashmail is properly using /fido/Amiganet, /fido/Fsxnet and so on /without/ the hex extensions, your binkd config may be better off using this as an example, where you put the actual zone number of the network instead of your default zone (2). This is proper 5D addressing, whereas you seem to be trying to use a mixture of 4D and 5D configurations and hoping for the best at the moment:

domain fidonet /fido/outbound 2
domain fsxnet /fido/fsxnet 21

.. and the same for every other network you have, with their proper zone number. This (I believe) disables the hex extensions and allows you to use directory names without them.

This method only works with Crashmail and a few other tossers that support multiple outbound directories. Aside from that, I'm not sure where you've specified directories with uppercase letters (maybe further into your Crashmail config that you didn't post?) but you will have to deal with that separately.

Now I'm taking a backup of all configuration files...

If it's currently working, back them up. Then maybe look into the difference between 4D and 5D addressing so that you understand better. From what I can tell, your configuration may currently be working, but it is still not correct.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (1:154/10)

Hey Joacim!

On Tue, 14 Oct 2025 14:05:46 , you wrote:

So I figured it out, and it's properly silly on my part.

I figured it out. I think.

In Binkd I named the other networks Amiganet, Fsxnet, and so on. But
the paths the outgoing stuff was written to was set to /fido/amiganet,
/fido/fsxnet and so on.

Naturally, Binkd was looking in /fido/Fsxnet.xxx and /fido/Amiganet.xxx.

That's because your binkd config file specifies to look in those directories. When using your default zone "2" for every network, it
will automatically create the hex extensions on your directories.
When using this method (4D addressing), it is better to use one
outbound directory, ie:

domain fidonet /fido/outbound 2
domain fsxnet /fido/outbound 2
domain othernet /fido/outbound 2

This will use 'outbound' as your fidonet outbound (default),
outbound.015 for fsxnet, etc.

If Crashmail is properly using /fido/Amiganet, /fido/Fsxnet and so on /without/ the hex extensions, your binkd config may be better off
using this as an example, where you put the actual zone number of the network instead of your default zone (2). This is proper 5D
addressing, whereas you seem to be trying to use a mixture of 4D and
5D configurations and hoping for the best at the moment:

domain fidonet /fido/outbound 2
domain fsxnet /fido/fsxnet 21

.. and the same for every other network you have, with their proper
zone number. This (I believe) disables the hex extensions and allows
you to use directory names without them.

This method only works with Crashmail and a few other tossers that
support multiple outbound directories. Aside from that, I'm not sure
where you've specified directories with uppercase letters (maybe
further into your Crashmail config that you didn't post?) but you
will have to deal with that separately.

Now I'm taking a backup of all configuration files...

If it's currently working, back them up. Then maybe look into the difference between 4D and 5D addressing so that you understand
better. From what I can tell, your configuration may currently be
working, but it is still not correct.

Hope that helps.

Great explanation! Thanks! I belive Crashmail grabs the name from here:

AKA 21:2/130.0
DOMAIN "Fsxnet"

But I'm not sure. It's the only place in crashmail.prefs or binkd.conf where it's spelled with a capital 'f'.


--- NiKom v2.6.0
* Origin: Delta City (deltacity.se, Vallentuna, Sweden) (2:221/242.0)

If Crashmail is properly using /fido/Amiganet, /fido/Fsxnet and so on /without
the hex extensions, your binkd config may be better off using this as an example, where you put the actual zone number of the network instead of your default zone (2). This is proper 5D addressing, whereas you seem to be trying to use a mixture of 4D and 5D configurations and hoping for the best at the moment:

domain fidonet /fido/outbound 2
domain fsxnet /fido/fsxnet 21

To expand some on what Nicholas said, I was running some tosser for a while that was determined not to use the typical "/out.(hex)" directories that
worked well with binkd. My fix, as I am running on linux, was to create symlinks to the standard path using the paths the tosser wanted as the
symlink names.

So the tosser could write to whatever non-standard paths it
wanted to, while the binkd config was pointed to the standard named
"out.(hex)" paths.

Thought I would throw that in there as a potential option if his suggestion didn't quite work.


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