MasCanc.NET

I don't want to spend many words about fidonet. It is a world-wide network. Each address is composed using a zone code, network, host, hub, boss and point. For example, 2:332/126.1. 2 is the european zone, 33 is the italian network, 2 is the region (tuscany), 12 is my boss node and 6 is my node and 1 is the point number (belonging to the BBs). The full story is available on wikipedia. Fidonet has two types of message exchange: Matrix (Netmail) and Echomail. A Matrix is a message sent to another person (1 to 1) and an Echomail is a message sent to a discussion area (such as POLITICS). For example a matrix could look like:

From: Massimiliano Masi at 2:2/33.1
To: Steve Wrigley at 2:550/33.2
Subject: What about you?

Hi Steve, 

What about Wrigley Field? What about
the MLB season?

--
Seen by: 550/33 550/0 2/0 550/37
Software: Ifmail-tx D'Bridge

You can see the areas in the fido stat page.

MasCanc BBS is 2:2/33 in Fidonet technology (was 2:332/136). We started the BBs in 1994. We were in ToscaNet, PNet and FidoNet. We owned a 14400 USRobotics modem with a 386sx25 MhZ from Compaq. We were using MS/DOS 5.0. The BBs was running Maximus as BBs softwre, Imail as mailer (as well as Frontdoor). You can find some information about ToscaNet here and in Fidotech networks here (in italian and thanks to Strano Network. As far as I know we are the only italian node in Fidonet. This old technology has gone. But it was the first attempt to create an international network. There was a time in which MasCanc was offering hosting for free, with shell access. Now the time is gone, due to the bandwitdh limit. The first website that I made was in 1996, about the BBs ("Sono tutti pazzi questi fiorentini!"). The BBs was composed by me (the SysOp), Vieri as coSysOp and TJ Norris as coSysOp. After few months we decided to switch to the shiny redhat distribution (version 4.2) and Slackware 3.2. We didn't know the command "umount": each time we would like to eject a CD, I need to reboot the machine!!! There was rather no documentation around, and the internet was so expensive! I decided to move to Ifmail, ifcico, mgetty and Inn, using Alexia. In this time I knew Leandro Noferini (now formerly the FLUG, was Grulli). I knew many sysops from italy, from Rome, from Pescara and from Siena. It was a nice living. We had points, and I met many friends in the network (for example: I met Vieri in ToscaNet). Then the fidobust came [1] , [2] and [3]. I stopped the BBs after some mail in the SYSOP.ITA echoarea. I had fear, fear of the ignorance of the italian policy (I know, it was the first attempt for the postal policy, everyone can make a mistake). Now, after 7 years, I decided to take another node from the ZC, 2:2/0 in the Fidonet IP-only network. Yes, the fidotechnology has changed: no more modems, no more 9600-8n1 ATX3L3DT strange strings. No. Just a simple protocol over IP (the Binkp) and a mail reader. There are no more italian areas (but if you want I can propose to re-create some new areas) but yes, time has changed. The "magic" remains, you can still send Matrixes, Echomail. You can still use D'Bridge or tmail. If you want to see how a BBs was, try to ssh newbbsuser@s.mascanc.net, with password ``newbbs''. Joining fidonet is easy, just ask me with the tag [Fido] in the subject. I'll guide to in a 3-minute configuration for re-joining this technology (by using a newsreader such as thunderbird or Nemo, or by using a fidonet point, like 2:2/33.34). Thank you !!!

MasCanc.NET is running a Debian system "Etch" on a Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2160 @ 1.80GHz with 80 Gigabyte of disk space and additional 500 Gigabyte of storage on SCSI disks. The DNS is maintaned by Network Solutions and the IP from Dyndns.org. The software used for mail processing is postfix / cyrus / spamassassin / razor / pyzor / dcc / clamav. The newsserver is a INN1 type that has fromhost signature as "dirac.mascanc.net". The hostname is dirac.mascanc.net. It is currently masquerading the whole LAN. There is a Kerberos realm (MASCANC.NET) running MIT kerberos. IMAP is authenticated using kerberos. There is a KX509 service for obtaining X.509 certificates based on the identity of the Kerberos TGS. Web authentication is also based on kerberos but is performed using the SAML SSO Web Profile using Shibboleth 2.0. Postfix has SMTP authentication using SASL. The certification authority is local. All the filesystem is distributed over the network using OpenAFS / Kerberos5. The web area is also on AFS, using IP-Based ACL. The newsserver is fed by using "suck". Fidonet is fed with binkd and we use ifmail as tosser / packer. Fidonet is maintained in the INN1 newsserver. The newsserver is authenticated. If you want technology transfer, please contact me by looking at my personal page.

We installed the Shibboleth 2.0 identity provider on MasCanc.NET. The URI is https://s.mascanc.net/idp/shibboleth. Now you login in MasCanc is using SAML 2.0 Web SSO profile. If you want to join in a federation, please let me know.