7 @unnumbered Comparison with existing solutions
9 Here is comparison with @url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UUCP, UUCP}
10 (Unix to Unix copy), FTN (@url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet, FidoNet}
11 Technology Networks) and @url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMTP, SMTP}
12 (because it is also store-and-forward solution).
14 @multitable @columnfractions 0.40 0.15 0.15 0.15 0.15
15 @headitem @tab UUCP @tab FTN @tab NNCP @tab SMTP
17 @item Ease of setup @tab Medium @tab Hard @tab Easy @tab Hard
18 @item Mail transmission @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes}
19 @item News transmission @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
20 @item File transmission @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
21 @item Multicast transmission @tab No @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
22 @item Chunked files @tab No @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
23 @item Remote command execution @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
24 @item Resumable downloads @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
25 @item Packets prioritizing @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
26 @item Mail compression @tab No @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
27 @item SMTP integration @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No @tab @strong{Yes} @tab N/A
28 @item Push/poll @tab @strong{Both} @tab @strong{Both} @tab @strong{Both} @tab Push
29 @item DTN @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
30 @item Intended network size @tab Dozens @tab Global @tab Dozens @tab Global
31 @item Routing @tab Manual/static @tab Federated @tab Manual/static @tab Federated
32 @item PSTN support @tab @strong{Yes} @tab @strong{Yes} @tab Possible @tab No
33 @item Anonymous peers @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No @tab No @tab @strong{Yes}
34 @item Peers authentication @tab PAP @tab PAP/CHAP @tab public-key @tab No
35 @item Packets encryption @tab No @tab No @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
36 @item Metadata privacy @tab No @tab No @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
37 @item Packets integrity check @tab No @tab No @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
38 @item Sneakernet friendliness @tab No @tab Partially @tab @strong{Yes} @tab No
45 UUCP can be setup rather easily with few configuration files
46 and few lines in each of them. But you have to add some encryption
47 and authentication overlay for securing you data transmission.
49 FTN is hard to setup because it is totally different world of
50 software comparing to Unix one. Even mail editor will be something
51 like GoldEd, not an ordinary email client. Moreover, there is no
52 out-of-box encryption and strong authentication involved.
54 NNCP requires editing of single Hjson @ref{Configuration,
57 @item File transmission
58 SMTP could transfer files only Base64-encoding them -- this is very
62 FTN software can automatically split huge files on smaller chunks,
63 to reassemble it on the destination node. NNCP also supports
64 @ref{Chunked, that feature}, especially important when dealing with
65 small capacity removable storage devices.
67 @item Packets prioritizing
68 UUCP and NNCP will push higher priority ("grade" in UUCP
69 terminology) packets first. You mail will pass, even when many
70 gigabytes files are queued in parallel.
72 @item SMTP integration
73 Mail servers like @url{http://www.postfix.org/, Postfix} and
74 @url{http://www.exim.org/, Exim} offers documentation and
75 configuration file examples how to use it with UUCP.
76 @url{http://www.sendmail.com/sm/open_source/, Sendmail} could be
77 integrated with UUCP rather easily too. For using NNCP, just replace
78 UUCP commands with NNCP ones.
81 With SMTP, you have to wait online when remote peers will push you
82 the messages. There are extensions to the protocol allowing
83 poll-model, but they are not used everywhere. This is very important
84 to be independent from specified model and be able to exchange the
85 data with possibility you have.
87 @item @url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-tolerant_networking, DTN} (delay tolerant networking)
88 SMTP will drop messages that can not be delivered for a long time
89 (several days). Others are tolerant for the long delays.
92 UUCP and NNCP does not known nothing about routing. You have to
93 explicitly tell how to send (what hops to use) packets to each node.
97 UUCP and FidoNet always have been working with modems out-of-box.
98 Only many years later they gained support for working over TCP/IP
99 connections. SMTP works only over TCP/IP. NNCP currently has only
100 TCP daemon, but nothing prohibits using of another 8-bit aware
105 @item Anonymous peers
106 NNCP and FTN are friend-to-friend networks exclusively. This is very
107 secure and mitigates many possible man-in-the-middle (MitM) and
108 @url{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack, Sybil} attacks.
112 @item Sneakernet friendliness
113 No one, except NNCP, supports data exchanging via removable storages
114 likes flash drives, CD-ROMs, tapes and hard drives out-of-box. It
115 can be emulated for many FTN software, by manually copying files in
116 its inbound/outbound directories. But UUCP and SMTP software
117 requires more manual work to do so.
121 @cindex UUCP commands
123 @url{https://changelog.complete.org/archives/10165-asynchronous-email-exim-over-nncp-or-uucp, copy of}
124 comparable commands of UUCP and NNCP, just for the interest:
126 @multitable @columnfractions 0.5 0.25 0.25
127 @headitem Purpose @tab UUCP @tab NNCP
134 @item Connect to remote system
135 @tab @command{uucico -s}, @command{uupoll}
136 @tab @command{@ref{nncp-call}}, @command{nncp-caller}
137 @item Receive connection (pipe, daemon, etc)
138 @tab @command{uucico} (@option{-l} or similar)
139 @tab @command{@ref{nncp-daemon}}
140 @item Request remote execution, @code{stdin} piped in
142 @tab @command{@ref{nncp-exec}}
143 @item Copy file to remote machine
145 @tab @command{@ref{nncp-file}}
146 @item Copy file from remote machine
148 @tab @command{@ref{nncp-freq}}
149 @item Process received requests
151 @tab @command{@ref{nncp-toss}}
152 @item Move outbound requests to dir (for USB stick, airgap, etc)
154 @tab @command{@ref{nncp-xfer}}
155 @item Create streaming package of outbound requests
157 @tab @command{@ref{nncp-bundle}}