FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
(revised Friday, 11-Feb-2005 15:40:20 UTC
)
If you find mistakes or omissions, feel free to send them to Stephen M Brown , NetMail (6:730/40)
What is Fidonet and what is its relationship with Japan_Link?
Fidonet is a non-profit international network of BBSes (Bulletin Board Systems). Services include a private messaging system ("NetMail"), a conferencing system ("EchoMail") and file distribution/request system. These are analogous to "email", "newsgroups" and "ftp", respectively.
Before the Internet really took off, Fidonet was quite large (over 50,000 nodes) largely run by volunteer "sysops" (system operators) from their homes or offices. It was, in its heyday, the worlds largest distribution channel for freeware and shareware.
In theory, Fidonet is a part of the Internet, since the Internet is a "network of networks" of which Fidonet is one such network. In practical terms, however, Fidonet does not support TCP/IP so email is the only Internet feature that works between the Internet and Fidonet. Even then, the software used is quite different and quite a bit of translation has to take place to pass messages between Fidonet and the internet.
Japan_Link is a Fidonet Echo forum. It is distributed on Fidonet as EchoMail and on the Internet via a list server. If was officially hosted by Shizuoka Each BBS, which exists today only as a web-based forum.
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Why has Japan Link been taken off line?
The short answer is that nobody was using it. SInce about 1994, Internet growth has been phenomenal and there is no limit to the kind of information you can get about Japan.
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Why aren't other East-Asian Fidonet regions connected to Japan_Link (via Fidonet)?
Japan_Link's original charter, was to compliment (not compete) with East_Asian_Link, which already connected Asian countries to Japan. It was decided to make Japan_Link a "Link to the West".
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What is a list server?
A list server, in it's simplest form, is a mail forwarding system (server) with a subscription list. The subscribers of the list each receive a copy of every message from the list server. For Japan_Link, this has been a way to bridge the conference from Fidonet to anyone with an Internet email address.
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How do I get removed the mailing list?
Please go to http://www.hardfocus.net/japan_link/sign-up.shtml
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When I reply (from Fidonet) to someone who has posted via the list server (Internet)? Should I reply using their actual name, their email address or to "All"?
It really doesn't matter what you put in the TO: field. They all look the same to list subscribers: all Japan_Link postings are addressed to them personally, as with private email.
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How can I display Japanese text on my English computer system?
PC:
If you have a recent version of either MS Windows (Windows 2000 or XP) then go to the international settings in the control panel and add Asian/Japanese Language support.
Older systems (Windows 95, 98, ME) require quite a bit of tinkering to get Japanese to work properly. Time to upgrade!
Apple:
If you have an Apple Macintosh with OS X, you will find International settings in the System Preferences.
Older systems (such as OS 9) required the Japanese Language Pack. OS X rocks! Why aren't you there already?
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I have Japanese support on my system but all I get is strange characters when I access Japan_Link?
If you are accessing via the Internet, you need a mail program that supports Japanese characters. Mozilla/Netscape and Outlook Express both support Japanese, if you have the right fonts and encoding configured. (see next question).
If you are posting via Fidonet, your options are more limited. Bluewave works (with a little work). Please ask in Japan_Link for more details.
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My mail program shows several character set choices. Which one should I use for Japan_Link?
For Netscape, select the Options Menu under Language Encoding the choices for Japanese are:
Japanese (auto-detect)
Japanese (shiftJIS)
Japanese (EUC)
Japanese (UTC-8)If you select "Japanese (auto-detect)", Netscape will, in most cases, automatically detect which encoding the message uses and translate accordingly. Outgoing messages (i.e., those you post) will be be EUC (ISO-2022-JP) encoded and work fine with the Japan_Link list. This assumes your have Japanese font support already working on your system.
How are these character sets different?
EUC (Extended Unix Code) is the usual method of handling double-byte-character-based languages on the Internet. In 1991 it was officially recognized by JIS (Japan Industrial Standards) as JIS X 0202-1991 and in 1993 by the International Standards Organization as ISO-2022-1993.
The standard is not limited to just Japanese, so presumably that is why the JP is tacked on to the end of ISO-2022-JP. (Anyone have a definite answer for this?)
Shift-JIS (S-JIS) is Microsoft's implementation of Japanese double-byte character support. It is generally supported on personal computers (Ma, Windows, etc.) but Japanese versions of browsers, mailers and any other Internet-centric software (including MSIE) should default to EUC. Japan_Link is a Fidonet-based conference. Since Fidonet has it's roots in DOS, Japanese BBS's and Japan_Link naturally use S-JIS. Although the "native" character coding for Japan_Link is S-JIS, messages are automatically converted between EUC and S-JIS as they pass between the two networks.
UTC-8 is a unicode implementation popular on many multilingual web sites.
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Why are HTML messages not allowed?
Fidonet mail readers are not capable of rendering HTML messages. HTML is unnecessary and unwelcome in many text-only based lists. It is also dreadfully inefficient.
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Compiled by:
Stephen
M Brown
6:730/40
Co-moderator
Japan_Link International