Re: NNCPNET, the successor to UUCP networks, now available

On 2025-04-09, Ethan Carter <ec1828@somewhere.edu> wrote:

Toaster <toaster@dne3.net> writes:
>

On Fri, 4 Apr 2025 16:58:41 -0000 (UTC)
John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> wrote:
>

Hi everyone,
 
I've mentioned before that NNCP is to UUCP what ssh is to telnet.
 
I've been thinking about this for a LONG time, and have finally done
it: created software to run an email network over NNCP.
 
You can read about it here:
 
https://salsa.debian.org/jgoerzen/docker-nncpnet-mailnode/-/wikis/home
 
Basically, it is a Docker container (multi-arch, so you can also run
it on a Raspberry Pi) that bundles these components:
 
* Exim mail server
 
* NNCP
 
* Verification and routing tools I wrote
 
* Automated nodelist tools - it will freq a nodelist from quux daily
and update its configuration accordingly.  I also updated tooling on
quux to support this.
 
It is open to all.  The homepage has a more extensive list of
features.
 
I even have a mailing list running on-net; see
https://salsa.debian.org/jgoerzen/docker-nncpnet-mailnode/-/wikis/interesting-addresses
 
There is EXTENSIVE documentation, and of course the source to the
whole thing is available.
 
In the future, I hope to make an Internet gateway available (on a
purely opt-in basis) as well.
 
Please feel free to ask any questions, and I hope to receive NNCP
email from you soon!
 
- John

>
Sounds like NNCP would be a good protocol to run on my ad-hoc wifi
network idea. I like it. Perhaps news and email over NNCP? Sounds like
a good match.

>
Yay---finally someone reacted to the this great thread. 
>
Special thanks to John Goerzen for working on the system and posting the
news.  I'm very excited!  I wish I could be emailing John on NNCPNET
already.  (I'm close to.) 
>
I got NNCP to work on my OpenBSD and FreeBSD, but I still need to learn
to use it properly.  I was able to transfer a file, but I couldn't find
it on my file system after the packet was transferred.  I also saw some
crashes using nncp-call on OpenBSD.  I need to stop and try again and
ask for help with the details ready.  I wanted to follow up sooner than
later to say that I was very happy to see the news.
>
I'm going through some tough days.  I'll be back ASAP.

I am kind of interesting in the NNCP mailing system, though not sure I
have a use for another email address, or whether it would just be
learning experience only.  One question I have, is can this mail system
send emails outside the NNTP network?  Can it send to a gmail address?

I've just recently played around with NNCP, and have a setup at home,
different use case.

I have a raspberry pi home server, and I found I used it as a temporary
holding place when I wanted to copy a file from my laptop to my desktop,
or vice versa (or from my new laptop to old laptop, or old laptop to
Desktop, you get the idea).  Situations where I might edit a config
file, and want that config file on another machine, or download
something I want also to use on another machine.  Just an ad-hoc "I want
this file on that machine", not worth setting up some synchronisation
for because it might be a random config, script, image, whatever.
Because I only have my computer on when I use it (only the raspberry pi
stays on), I used to just SCP it from the computer I was on to the
raspberry pi, then later, when on the target computer, copy it back.  I
could use a USB stick, but is easier to just copy than fetch a stick,
mount, etc.

File synchronisation tools may help, but I'd need to dedicate a place to
put the file and it seems overkill to perhaps have a daemon running on
all machines.

I was looking at NNCP for a private network recently, but realised it
could solve this problem.  Simply set up each machine as a node, using
the raspberry pi to route between them.  Multi-cast means if I want that
file on all my machines, that is easy, and I don't need to remember
which file I wanted to pull either.  It will be waiting in the spool.

There is still value in the private network that this tool could create.
Technology in which the user is in full control, can fully understand
and own it is empowering, and most modern solutions take some aspect of
control away, whether it is having a third party provide the "service",
or just being more opaque and not quite as configurable or malleable.