DYMNET
                                    
                        A New Concept in BBSing
                                   by
                              Greg Collins

                           DELPHI Mail:  PLAZA


Matchmaker Enterprises of Burbank, California would like to
introduce you to DYM-NET.  This is not a product, but a concept
that we have integrated into our latest BBS product.  But, in
order to promote communication between BBS systems of different
vendors, we'd like to provide you with information on DYMNET.
 
Dial-Your-Match Network (DYMNET) is a protocol that allows
separate Dial-Your-Match Bulletin Board Systems (or any other
BBS) to transfer public messages, private messages, and sysop
comments remotely between other BBS systems.  We have implemented
this process to be automatic, so messages are transmitted at
night.  A special feature is the forwarding capability that will
allow you to transmit messages through other BBS systems to the
final destination.  Don't be scared.  We've implemented DYMNET
in such a way that its easy for you to add it to your current
BBS system.  You can even do it in BASIC.  We've tried to make
it easy to implement, on your own if you need to.  DYMNET currently
exists on the Commodore-128 version of Dial-Your-Match, and we've
successfully implemented it as an add-on to the Apple version of
Dial-Your-Match.
 
We will describe the high-level design of DYM-NET in this document.
If there is enough interest, we will follow this document with the
full-scale implementation procedures.  We want to contribute these
to the public domain if they are wanted, that is.
 
OK, basically, each BBS system that wants to be on the DYMNET should
have a list of which other BBS systems they can communicate with.  This
list should include such things as:
network name of remote system, ie. DYM1, phone number of remote system,
network address code on remote system, password on remote system,
transfer baudrate, transfer dialing and the times to transfer.
You will keep a sequential file for each remote system and during
the day, store up messages for that system.  Then, late at night,
your system will automatically dial-up the remote system and forward
the messages.  The way that works is you need a special network address
code on the remote system.  When it receives the call from you, it
knows you want to send messages, so it accepts them.  The next morning,
all the messages are in the right places.

Using this concept further, you can ship a message to a system
that has access to the system you really want the message to
go to.  This intermediate system will forward the message to the
final destination.  You can do this more than once creating a link
to send messages across toll-call boundaries.  Best of all, this
works automatically.  Yoou only care about the first link, and from
that point the message just follows the path set up at each system once
it gets there.  I know this sounds complicated, but it's not.  I
know this information is sketchy, and I just wanted to post it to
see if there is enough interest for me to post any more.
 
Gregg E. Collins
Author of Dial-Your-Match