Organization
Fidonet is organized in a tree structure, with fully automated software suites as branches and additional end users' software as leaves.
The Fidonet hierarchy consists of Zones,Regions,Networks,Nodes and Points broken down more-or-less geographically. The highest level is the Zone which is largely continent based: Zone 1 is North America, Zone 2 is Europe, Zone 3 is Australia, et cetera. Each zone is broken down into regions, which are broken down into nets, which consist of individual nodes. A node may also support points, i.e. users who operate their own mail software but do not operate BBSss, and thus fall somewhere between a BBS user and a Sysop.
Unlike the internet, each system maintains a nodelist of all member systems. Information on each node includes: name of the BBS, name of the Sysop, geographic location, telephone number, and software capabilities.
As an example, consider a node located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA whose assigned node number is 918: This is located in Zone 1 (North America), Region 19, Network 170. The full Fidonet address would be be 1:170/918. Note, the region is for administrative purposes, not part of the address. Such a system may also support points: for a point assigned number 42 (by the Sysop of this node) the address would be 1:170/918.42.
Netmail and Echomail flow along the same structure. A user (or point) enters a message, which the node sends to a hub. A hub acts as a distribution/reception point for mail. The hub then typically send the message to the Net Coordinator. From there it may be sent through a Regional Coordinator, or to some other system specifically set up for the function. Mail to other zones is sent through a Zone Gate. Using the example above, a message might follow the path:
- 1:170/918.42 (point) to 1:170/918 (node) to 1:170/900 (hub) to 1:170/0 (net coordinator) to 1:19/0 (region coordinator) to 1:1/0 (zone coordinator). From there, it gets distributed 'down stream' to the destination node(s).
