Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!mike From: mike@unmvax.unm.edu (Michael I. Bushnell) Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: pathalias ignores fast Internet connections Message-ID: <261@unmvax.unm.edu> Date: 2 Aug 89 08:31:08 GMT References: <27059@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <3183@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> Reply-To: mike@unmvax.cs.unm.edu (Michael I. Bushnell) Organization: University of No Money, Albuquerque, New Mexico Lines: 53 In article <3183@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> ahd@sun.soe!clutx.clarkson.edu writes: >From article <27059@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>, by ulmo@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Brad Allen): >I would not call it a flaw. Rather, it avoids use of the internet >because the internet HAS NOT AGREED to be a backbone for UUCP traffic. >While the above use of the internet would be legal (berkeley being on >the net), using the internet as a mail carrier between other networks >is explicitly frowned upon by the those who rule. Not anymore -- see below... >Since UUCP sites don't pay for those nice T1 links making up the >Internet backbones, their view is not unreasonable. Actually, very few *internet* sites pay for such links either...most have grants...and that's only for the local link. The backbone links are not paid for directly by anyone... >In practice, a message often starts on UUCP and ends up on Bitnet via >NSFNET and CSNET, but wholesale (official routing) via the internet >would get the net.police out in droves. This is actually no longer true. It used to be that NIS -> IS -> IS -> NIS (NIS == Non internet site, IS == Internet site) with the central link over the internet was frowned upon. Not so any longer. The internet is now made up, substantially, of three categories of networks: MILNET, ARPANET, and NSFNET. All those regional networks are in the NSFNET category. The NSFNET policy is specifically to allow such traffic, since the NSFNET was created to increase general datacommunications, and it should do that even for those that are unable to connect. Connection, actually, is relatively cheap (all you have to pay for is your router and your leased line and a nominal fee). ARPANET is being phased out, so its policies really aren't relevant. MILNET *does* desire to restrict non-milnet traffic, but this is taken care of at a lower level: the level of IP packet routing. Unless one of the IS sites above is a milnet site and the NIS it is talking to is not directly associated with MILNET/DDN, the rules are being broken. However, the rules are being broken by that MILNET site, and not anyone else. When MILNET begins distributing the network costs among sites, presumably this will offer real incentive for such sites to follow the guidelines. The upshot is that almost all internet traffic now travels on networks supported by NSF, which has stated that use by non-internet sites is perfectly acceptable. -- Michael I. Bushnell \ This above all; to thine own self be true LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE \ And it must follow, as the night the day, mike@unmvax.cs.unm.edu /\ Thou canst not be false to any man. Telephone: +1 505 292 0001 / \ Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!