FidoNet message packet

A FidoNet message packet is used to transfer messages in the FidoNet BBS network. The FidoNet nodelist is used by systems on FidoNet to find out how to contact other systems to send messages (originally by dialup, but now often by IP or other networking). Originally, all transfers were done during a designated "net hour" in the middle of the night when BBSs were closed to human callers and only called one another, but eventually most software became capable of making network transmissions at any hour (though it was usually done when long-distance rates were cheaper in the days before unlimited calling plans).

The formats used in packet transmission are defined in FidoNet standards documents maintained by the FidoNet Technical Standards Committee (FTSC).

The packets included some binary information and some plain text. In the plain text portions, line/paragraph breaks were represented with CR (hex 0D), while "soft line breaks" inserted by automatic processors (which were supposed to be ignored in favor of reformatting the text at the recipient end) were stored as hex 8D. Linefeeds (hex 0A) might or might not follow the carriage returns (hard or soft) and were ignored. Long lines were supposed to be wrapped to suit the line length.

Lines starting with Ctrl-A (01) were considered to be control lines intended not to be displayed.

Sample files

 * Sample FidoNet packet (from 1988; found in an old bunch of archived files, and the filename has "BAD" in it, so it might have been messed up in some way)