Kees van Eeten wrote to Roy Witt about MakeNL v3.4.1 Release:   
             No pseudo-French spellings, please!   
      
    RW>> You can test this by attempting to connect to 2:292/907...a PVT   
    RW>> -Unpublished- IP capable node.   
      
    KvE>  The point is, that when IP only nodes came into life, a choice had   
    KvE> to be made what to put into the phone number field. Some were in   
    KvE> favour of an all zero number, others were in favour of a specific   
    KvE> pattern to specify an ip address. If a hostname was given an all   
    KvE> zero's ip address was put in the phone number field.   
      
   AFAIK, Janis and the other ZCs worked that out among themselves. I know   
   that all zeros or the Static IP of a node was recommended here in the   
   phone field a long time ago.   
      
    KvE>  Some with knowledge in the international phone world were against   
    KvE> the use of the tree zero preable, as this preable appears to be used   
    KvE> for emegency services in some countries.   
      
   The only zone in which that is used for emergencies is Z3...They use a   
   different method of indicating an IP node.   
      
    KvE> Therefore some zones prefer the use of -Unpublished-. The nodelist   
    KvE> compiler makenl by Ben Baker and its clone makenl_ng, has an   
    KvE> internal test, that requires that where -Unpublished-   
    KvE>  is used, the Pvt tag should be placed at the beginning of the line.   
      
   Except that the keyword Allowunpub in a CTL file now allows the -Unpub'd-   
   to be there without the PVT tag.   
      
    KvE>  This is inconvenient for listings, that should start with Region,   
    KvE> Host, Hub or Down.   
      
   Using Host doesn't seem to make MNL balk with an -Unpub'd- in the phone   
   field.   
      
    KvE>  Then there are mailers like your, that gathers a lot of   
    KvE> intelligence from the nodelist. It behaviour stems from POTS times   
    KvE> and I think correctly refuses to directly to Pvt tagged zones.   
      
   Yes, but that can be over-ridden in DB by making your own MYLIST.xxx to   
   show the node with a PVT in a ZC published nodelist as an IP only node.   
   Been there and have done that. It works just fine with that MYLIST.   
      
    KvE> As a consequence it will also not connect to IPonly nodes that fly   
    KvE> the Pvt tag.   
      
   If you use only the ZC published NODELIST.xxx, else you have to make your   
   own private list and have DB read that into it's configuration. As I   
   mentioned above.   
      
    KvE>  To solve this almost ten years ago start was made to add an option   
    KvE> to makenl_ng the only nodelist compiler with availble source code.   
    KvE>  The option would disable the test that when -Unpublished- was noted   
    KvE>  as phnone number, the Pvt tag was not required.   
      
   8^)   
      
    KvE>  The ten years were used to convince many that makenl_ng was safe to   
    KvE> use, but as the hardware and software environments are divers in   
    KvE> Fidonet, bugs surfaced, that were only in specific environments.   
      
   I've toyed with MNL since v2.5...only recently (two or three years now)   
   have I had the opportunity to put it into operation.   
      
    KvE> It is a shame that it has taken so long, but it is as it is.   
      
   Yeup.   
      
    KvE>  So when this whole exercise comes to an end, the nodelist line for   
    KvE> the system that Bart runs, will have the Pvt tag removed, and your   
    KvE> mailer will happily connect.   
      
   It does already, as he will attest to in his own time.   
      
    KvE>  As for me connecting to Bart's system, my mailer has no other other   
    KvE>  knowledge of what is in the nodelist, then I tell it. So if I   
    KvE> provide the hostname or IP address that Bart uses, my mailer will   
    KvE> connect.   
      
   As above...   
      
    KvE>  So to make a long story even longer, my interest in Allowunpub is   
    KvE> to allow Region, Host and Hub together with -Unpublished-. For you   
    KvE> it will open the possibillity for a direct connect to many system   
    KvE> now having Pvt at the start of their nodelist line.   
      
   I can do that for those I want to connect to, but it shouldn't require   
   that I have to do that. If Bart would put zeros in his listing rather than   
   -Unpublished-, that would speed things up ten fold. That he's not allowed   
   to because of bad software used by his ZC/NC shouldn't be a wall in   
   connecting to his system.   
      
      
           R\%/itt   
      
      
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