RelayNet
Encyclopedia
RelayNet, also known as RIME for RelayNet International Mail Exchange, was an e-mail
exchange networking protocol supported by the PCBoard
bulletin board system
. It was in most respects similar to FidoNet
in purpose and technology, although it used names for its nodes instead of Fido's numeric address pairs. Due to it being limited to PCBoard, it carried a much smaller amount of traffic than Fido. RIME was built up, starting in 1988, from a master hub owned by Bonnie Anthony, a local Psychiatrist, in Bethesda, Maryland
and a subordinate hub owned by her brother, Howard Belasco, in The Bronx, New York. Bonnie's son, Kip Compton, in high-school at the time, played an important role in the software's development and evolution.
PCBoard
, created by Clark Development Corporation (CDC) in Salt Lake City, Utah
, was always a "premium" BBS system and fairly expensive. For this reason it was limited mostly to larger multi-line BBS systems, where it was particularly well liked due to its "nice" behaviour on the network when running off a common file server
. However this also meant that the PCBoard market generally consisted of a small number of large systems, as opposed to a large number of small ones, hence RIME had usually only a few hundred member boards.
Thus RelayNet, which originally ran only on PCBoard, did not have the same level of infrastructure as FidoNet, and didn't build the sort of global organizational structure that FidoNet needed. Instead, RelayNet evolved as a series of smaller regional networks, including the NANET hosted by Canada Remote Systems
, RoseNet hosted by their competitors Rose Media, QuebecNet, FINET, Smartnet, Intelec, Ilink, U'NI-net, Friendsnet and others.
RelayNet software later appeared for a variety of other BBS systems, including RBBS, GAP, EIS, QBBS
and Wildcat! BBS
, but these systems also provided excellent FidoNet support and RelayNet was never popular on anything other than PCBoard and its close competitor, RBBS.
On August 1, 2007, Don Barba, owner since the late 1990s of the RIME network, its software, and since the late 1980s of Moondog, its central BBS in Brooklyn, New York, announced that all would close on August 15.
Zap! BBS was an Intelec node. I was the sysop --PJBrunet.com
Copy of the old RelayNet Bylaws. I was the Systems Administrator.
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
exchange networking protocol supported by the PCBoard
PCBoard
PCBoard was a bulletin board system application first introduced for DOS in 1983 by Clark Development Corporation. Clark Development was founded by Fred Clark. PCBoard was one of the first commercial BBS packages for DOS systems, and was considered one of the "high end" packages during the rapid...
bulletin board system
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
. It was in most respects similar to FidoNet
FidoNet
FidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems. It was most popular in the early to mid 1990s, prior to the introduction of easy and affordable access to the Internet...
in purpose and technology, although it used names for its nodes instead of Fido's numeric address pairs. Due to it being limited to PCBoard, it carried a much smaller amount of traffic than Fido. RIME was built up, starting in 1988, from a master hub owned by Bonnie Anthony, a local Psychiatrist, in Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
and a subordinate hub owned by her brother, Howard Belasco, in The Bronx, New York. Bonnie's son, Kip Compton, in high-school at the time, played an important role in the software's development and evolution.
PCBoard
PCBoard
PCBoard was a bulletin board system application first introduced for DOS in 1983 by Clark Development Corporation. Clark Development was founded by Fred Clark. PCBoard was one of the first commercial BBS packages for DOS systems, and was considered one of the "high end" packages during the rapid...
, created by Clark Development Corporation (CDC) in Salt Lake City, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, was always a "premium" BBS system and fairly expensive. For this reason it was limited mostly to larger multi-line BBS systems, where it was particularly well liked due to its "nice" behaviour on the network when running off a common file server
File server
In computing, a file server is a computer attached to a network that has the primary purpose of providing a location for shared disk access, i.e. shared storage of computer files that can be accessed by the workstations that are attached to the computer network...
. However this also meant that the PCBoard market generally consisted of a small number of large systems, as opposed to a large number of small ones, hence RIME had usually only a few hundred member boards.
Thus RelayNet, which originally ran only on PCBoard, did not have the same level of infrastructure as FidoNet, and didn't build the sort of global organizational structure that FidoNet needed. Instead, RelayNet evolved as a series of smaller regional networks, including the NANET hosted by Canada Remote Systems
Canada Remote Systems
Canada Remote Systems, or simply CRS, was a major commercial bulletin board system located in the Toronto area. It was one of the earliest commercial systems outside the "big iron" companies such as CompuServe or The Source, and survived into the 1990s before being overwhelmed by the Internet and...
, RoseNet hosted by their competitors Rose Media, QuebecNet, FINET, Smartnet, Intelec, Ilink, U'NI-net, Friendsnet and others.
RelayNet software later appeared for a variety of other BBS systems, including RBBS, GAP, EIS, QBBS
QuickBBS
QuickBBS was a bulletin board system application first introduced for MS-DOS by Adam Hudson.-External links:** at The BBS Archive...
and Wildcat! BBS
Wildcat! BBS
Wildcat! BBS was a bulletin board system server application that Mustang Software developed in 1986 for DOS, and later ported to Microsoft Windows. By the release of Version 4 it was the basis for more than 50,000 bulletin board systems worldwide....
, but these systems also provided excellent FidoNet support and RelayNet was never popular on anything other than PCBoard and its close competitor, RBBS.
On August 1, 2007, Don Barba, owner since the late 1990s of the RIME network, its software, and since the late 1980s of Moondog, its central BBS in Brooklyn, New York, announced that all would close on August 15.
External links
Copy of the old RIME User's GudeZap! BBS was an Intelec node. I was the sysop --PJBrunet.com
Copy of the old RelayNet Bylaws. I was the Systems Administrator.