It is possible to communicate interactively with users on BITNET hosts,
although this is supported by SIPB, not by Athena.  You'll need to use a
program called "bwrite", which is available in the sipb filesystem.  For
example, to send a message to user CPW on the BITNET node SOMEVAX, type

    bwrite cpw@somevax

The bwrite program will prompt you for the text of your message, just
like the Zephyr program zwrite.

To use the bwrite program, or read its man page with the

    man bwrite

command, you should first type

    add sipb

Messages from BITNET will come to you with the sender's address in the
Zephyr signature.  Also, they'll always be sent one line at a time, so
you may find it helpful to customize your Zephyr environment for
handling these messages.

For example, including the line

	zwgc*reverseStack:              True

in your ~/.Xresources file will stack the messages with the oldest on
top, so you can read them in the right order.  For more information, see
the zwgc man page, or type

    help zephyr

SIPB also provides a program called bfinger that lets you find out if a
BITNET user is currently logged in (bfinger has a man page, too).

For example, if you type

    bfinger jruser@psuvm

you'll get a Zephyr message back (within a minute or so) that has
"System Daemon AT PSUVM" in the signature, and the body

    CPQ: JRUSER not in CP directory

This means there isn't a JRUSER account.  If there were, you might be
told what terminal JRUSER was logged in to, or that the person wasn't
logged in.  The exact text is system dependent.

To write to you, BITNET users on IBM VM/CMS nodes should use the
syntax

    TELL USER AT MITSIPB The text of the message

Users of VAX systems running VMS should instead type

    SEND USER@MITSIPB The text of the message

where USER is your Athena username.  To initiate a conversation, a
BITNET user should probably send you a brief "are you there" message.
If you're not logged in, whatever they sent will be lost, and
(unfortunately) they won't get an error message.  Similarly, although
you'll sometimes get a zephyrgram indicating an error from bwrite (e.g.,
"user not logged on"), it's also possible for your message, or a reply,
to just get lost along the way.  One particular problem is that some
BITNET nodes don't recognize the name MITSIPB, and therefore can't send
any messages to us.

If you're affected by this problem, or have any other trouble with the
"bwrite" or "bfinger" programs, please send mail to

    bug-sipb@mit.edu

and include the name of the BITNET node you were trying to reach.



last updated: 6/12/95