RFC 629

Scenario for Using the Network Journal ✨

okay bestie, this is RFC 629 🎀 and it's giving a how-to. It's titled "SCENARIO FOR USING THE NETWORK JOURNAL," written by Jeanne North at SRI-ARC (NIC 22383), dated March 27, 1974 📅. The doc doesn't say what category it is, and it doesn't obsolete or update anything, so no drama there 🌸

Network users can send mail to individuals and groups through the Network Journal 💌. You can type a message or send a whole file, and you can use SNDMSG or your site's mail system to do it. At NIC, the mail gets converted into NLS files, gets Journalized, and then goes out to the recipients 🧚. Short messages show up as regular messages. Longer ones arrive as citations to files, which you can grab right away or later with FTP 📂. Mail sent to NIC with a / in the user-name field is what summons the Net Journal 🔥.

Sending the Message or File by TELEX SNDMSG 📨

First, build your user field with a slash and the NIC idents 💅. The format is sender ident/addressee ident(s)@NIC, so something like JEW/DHC MAP@NIC is a whole vibe. To send to a group, use the group ident, like JEW/NLG@NIC 👯. If you want to mix Journal SNDMSG with SNDMSG to other people, just add their Network addresses after commas, like JEW/DHC@NIC,PRATT@ISI 🦋. For NIC idents and Network addresses, check the ARPANET Directory 📖.

Here's what the whole session looks like:

[@] SNDMSG <CR>
[Type ? for help]
[Users:] JEW/NGG <SP> DHC@NIC, PRATT@ISI <CR>
[Subject:] Title of Message <CR>
[Message (? for help):] Text of message ...
   Note: ^B allows insertion of a sequential file as the message or
   at any point in the test of the message:

   ^B [(Insert file:)] <directory>file <ALT> [ext ...EOF)]
<^Z>
[jew/ngg dhc@nic -- ok]   (or [ -- queued -- timed-out])
[pratt@isi -- ok]

✨ Heads up: if you're using SNDMSG through TELNET, change the TELNET escape character (like to ^Q, for example). That frees up ^Z so it can be used for end-of-message 🙈

Retrieving the File from Network Journal 📥

Swap in the citation you got back, like <GJOURNAL>21695, where it says <journal>number, and give it a filename. It looks like this 👇

[@] FTP <CR>
[HOST FTP User process x.xx.x]
[*] CONN <SP> NIC <CR>
[   Connection opened]
[*< OFFICE-1 FTP Server x.xx.x - at DAY DATE TIME]
[*] LOG <SP> ANONYMOUS <SP> NIC <CR>
[*] GET <SP> <journal>number.NLS;xnls <CR>
[   to local file] filename <CR> [New file] <CR>
[<  IMAGE retrieve of <journal>number.NLS; started]
[<  transfer completed]
[*] DISC <CR>
[*] QUIT <CR>

[@] COP <ALT> [<File list>] file <ALT> [<TO>] LPT: <CR> [OK] <CR>

Sending a Message by TELNET, FTP, or Other Mail System 🌈

TELNET by TENEX Users 💻

Here's the TELNET flow for TENEX users. Type the commands, pause where it says pause, and let the server do its thing 🧚

[@] TELNET <CR>
[User Telnet x.x DATE ...]
[#] NIC <SP> FTP <CR> [is complete.#]
[300 OFFICE-1 FTP Server x.xx.x - at DAY DATE TIME]
MAIL <SP> JEW/RWW <SP> DHC <CR>   (pause)
[350 Type mail, ended by a line with only a "."]
Re: Title of Message <CR>
First line of message <CR>
second line of message <CR>   ...etc.
 . <CR>   (pause)
[256 Mail completed successfully]
<^Z>
[#] DISC <CR>
[#] QUIT <CR>

FTP by TENEX Users 📡

Same energy, but through FTP. Every line gets a QUO <ALT> in front of it 🫶

[@] FTP <CR>
[HOST FTP User process x.xx.x]
[*] CONN <SP> NIC <CR>
[   Connection opened]
[*< OFFICE-1 FTP Server x.xx.x - at DAY DATE TIME]
[*] QUO <ALT> MAIL <SP> JEW/DHC RWW <CR>
[*] (pause) [Type mail, ended by a line with only a "."]
[*] QUO <ALT> Re: Title of Message <CR>
[*] QUO <ALT> First line of message <CR>
[*] QUO <ALT> second line of message <CR>   ...etc.
[*] QUO <ALT> . <CR>   (pause)
[*< Mail completed successfully]
[*] DISC <CR>
[*] QUIT <CR>

Using Other Mail Systems 🍓

Real talk, there's no single recipe that works with every local mail system 😭. The general move is to set up your local mail system with two things:

• NIC as the host name
• Sender's NIC ident / Addressee's NIC ident as the user name

For more on the Network Journal, see RFC543, NIC 17777 📚.

🎀 This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry into the online RFC archives by Alan Ford 12/99.