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