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