Does anyone actually use UUCP?

I used it, very, very briefly in the 90's but I was
completely behind a menu system and really didn't do
anything more than email.

I think it would be kind of fun to play with, and
might even be viable for email in the current age where
we don't always want a constant connection to the net.

Email over UUCP with Tor hidden services would be kind of
neat, too. And could UUCP+Tor be used like bittorrent for
file trading?

It seems like Tor+UUCP would be a great match
because of the latency of onion routing, and there would
be a possibility of working along-side i2p.

However, it also seems like a pointless thing to do if no
one else is using it.

I wouldn't even know where to start, and I don't think the
dialup lines and older protocols meant for serial lines
would really apply. My thoughts are only in theory, it would
be interesting to hear what someone who actually uses UUCP
has to say about it.


Joe
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Hello! Hope you and anyone else who is happening to read this made it
through 2020.

I think it would be kind of fun to play with

Me too.

I have little actual experience with UUCP. Actually, this will be my
first post on a newsgroup ever.

I became active on the Internet well after it's early beginnings. My
first dial up connection was in something like 2002 and a few years
later I got DSL.

I'm intrigued on how the Usenet was a collaboration of people working
together and providing services over primitive communications links not
meant for data traffic at all. It was an "independent Internet" and
that holds great appeal to me in today's landscape of ad-driven social
media hellscape. I'm glad something like this is still possible even if
it's not the cool thing to do anymore.

And could UUCP+Tor be used like bittorrent for
file trading?

If you haven't looked into NZBs by now, do that.

It seems like Tor+UUCP would be a great match
because of the latency of onion routing, and there would
be a possibility of working along-side i2p.

Looking at the docs, it's definitely possible. Just have to keep in
mind since UUCP is point to point, both sides of a link have to agree on
the method of communication. The way UUCP depends on remote execution
via using `uucico` as a shell may make some not want a completely
anonymous system on the other end, though.

I don't think the
dialup lines and older protocols meant for serial lines
would really apply.

Gosh, I'm really intrigued by the possibility of literally doing UUCP
through dialup. While I have a 56k modem, it's too hard to get a phone
line from my ISP without bundling other stuff I don't want (I don't want
to have to buy cable TV I never watch just to have a phone number to do real-serial UUCP).

Ok, about to hit Send. If I'm disturbing anyone with this post I do apologize.

On 6/30/2020 8:25 PM, hoper@tilde.black wrote:

Does anyone actually use UUCP?

I used it, very, very briefly in the 90's but I was
completely behind a menu system and really didn't do
anything more than email.

I think it would be kind of fun to play with, and
might even be viable for email in the current age where
we don't always want a constant connection to the net.

Email over UUCP with Tor hidden services would be kind of
neat, too. And could UUCP+Tor be used like bittorrent for
file trading?

It seems like Tor+UUCP would be a great match
because of the latency of onion routing, and there would
be a possibility of working along-side i2p.

However, it also seems like a pointless thing to do if no
one else is using it.

I wouldn't even know where to start, and I don't think the
dialup lines and older protocols meant for serial lines
would really apply. My thoughts are only in theory, it would
be interesting to hear what someone who actually uses UUCP
has to say about it.

Joe

--- Synchronet 3.18b-Linux NewsLink 1.113

UUCP/Ssh and UUCP/Tor would be a nice start, adding other transports
later would be no problem.

UUCP/Ssh might exclude some use cases where the end user would need
firewall tricks to be reachable. NAT can be a problem too. UUCP/Tor
would overcome this easily but then some providers might treat Tor
strangely and some non default config might be needed there too.

But with both combinations as a start, most users should be able to
join.


I was happily using FidoNet in the UUCP days, so I missed it. If we
dive into it as kind of swarm (P2Pish), I'd be massively interested.


Take back control!
MESH THE PLANET!
;-)
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hoper@tilde.black writes:

Does anyone actually use UUCP?

—▷ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UUCP#Current_uses_and_legacy

;-D

And I ordered the holy UUCP book yesterday.
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Top secret:

https://tildegit.org/UUCP-Grassroots/incubator/wiki#o-inching-forward-one-%C3%A5ngstr%C3%B6m-per-liter-coffee
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On 2021-03-08, yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> wrote:

Top secret:

https://tildegit.org/UUCP-Grassroots/incubator/wiki#o-inching-forward-one-%C3%A5ngstr%C3%B6m-per-liter-coffee

I am excited to see this! I do still run UUCP here. I would be happy
to join this effort!

I was just visiting in #uucp about NNCP, which basically a modernized
UUCP (NNCP is to UUCP what ssh is to telnet) with built-in crypto. This
UUCP effort reminds me of what I'm trying to do with NNCP also. NNCP
makse a lot of setup easier (no need for ssh tunneling, etc). I have a
NNCP effort going at https://github.com/jgoerzen/nncp-tools/blob/main/docs/quux-relay.org .

I'm happy to peer with any of you over NNCP. I also offer Usenet feeds over NNCP.

Some links:

Tunneling NNCP over other transports, including UUCP: https://github.com/jgoerzen/nncp-tools/blob/main/docs/tunneling.org

Using NNCP for Usenet: https://github.com/jgoerzen/nncp-tools/blob/main/docs/usenet.org (NNCP provides similar commands to UUCP, but the syntax is slightly different;
this uses a small wrapper to convert uux to nncp-exec)

Bi-directional git syncing over NNCP: https://github.com/jgoerzen/gitsync-nncp/blob/main/gitsync-nncp.org

My blog series on NNCP:
https://changelog.complete.org/archives/tag/nncp

More ideas:
https://nncp.mirrors.quux.org/Use-cases.html and https://nncp.mirrors.quux.org/Integration.html

I use NNCP for Usenet, Git syncing, and ZFS airgapped (or pseudo-airgapped) backups, which can exceed 250GB packet sizes.

Exim and Postfix can use NNCP as a replacement for UUCP with no source modifications (only minor config modifications). INN2 can use it with a
small wrapper script (INN2 hardcodes the uux parameters, which aren't
valid for nncp-exec; my page above on it has a little wrapper that does
the conversion; inbound, it works exactly like UUCP.)

- John
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yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> wrote:

And I ordered the holy UUCP book yesterday.

Cheers yeti,

which UUCP book were you referring to? I've got *Managing uucp and
Usenet* by Tim O'Really and Grace Todino.

lkh
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Yes.

It doesn't help much with Taylor UUCP. Maybe it's nice to have some
historic background info, but I expected more help/boost from having it
than there really was... :-/
--
Take Back Control! -- Mesh The Planet!
I do not play Nethack, I do play GNUS! o;-)
Solid facts do not need 1001 pictures.
--- Synchronet 3.19a-Linux NewsLink 1.113

yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> wrote:

It doesn't help much with Taylor UUCP. Maybe it's nice to have some
historic background info, but I expected more help/boost from having it
than there really was... :-/

true. I *do* like it for the historic background.

My favourite line from the backcover:

"How to get DOS versions of UUCP, and how to set up
DOS-based laptop computers as travelling UUCP nodes"

fascinating!

~lkh
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Meanwhile I trashed my 4-node UUCP over TCP (partially over Tor) setup
and have switched to directly using SMTP over Tor.

When there is a UUCP revival I'm missing, drop me a line.
--
Take Back Control! -- Mesh The Planet!
I do not play Nethack, I do play GNUS! o;-)
Solid facts do not need 1001 pictures.
--- Synchronet 3.19a-Linux NewsLink 1.113

It was fun for a while...

https://web.archive.org/web/20210908020131im_/https://tildegit.org/UUCP-Grassroots/incubator/wiki/raw/20210408-180027-UTC__four_UUCP_node_hop_mail_circle_achievement_unlocked.png
--
Take Back Control! -- Mesh The Planet!
I do not play Nethack, I do play GNUS! o;-)
Solid facts do not need 1001 pictures.
--- Synchronet 3.19a-Linux NewsLink 1.113

It was fun for a while...

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--
Take Back Control! -- Mesh The Planet!
I do not play Nethack, I do play GNUS! o;-)
Solid facts do not need 1001 pictures.
--- Synchronet 3.19a-Linux NewsLink 1.113

yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> wrote:

Meanwhile I trashed my 4-node UUCP over TCP (partially over Tor) setup
and have switched to directly using SMTP over Tor.

When there is a UUCP revival I'm missing, drop me a line.

yeah, we now have a small uucp network running for ttrpg stuff
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