Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!gatech!mcdchg!falkor!heiby
From: heiby@falkor.UUCP (Ron Heiby)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Anon-UUCP server for cbip
Message-ID: <187@falkor.UUCP>
Date: 6 Sep 89 02:44:26 GMT
References: <4731@brains.UUCP>
Reply-To: heiby@chg.mcd.mot.com (Ron Heiby)
Organization: Luck Dragons, Magic, & Friends
Lines: 38

paul_gauthier%brains@iisat.UUCP writes:
>    Any chance you'll be able to set up a mail-server as well? I'm out in UUCP
> land and can't use FTP or the like to get files. Calling LD to an anon-UUCP
> server is an option, but an expensive one. A mail-server (like the one that
> serves the Simtel-20 libraries) would be great for the cbip archives. 

NO NO NO NO NO!!!  Setting up an anonymous UUCP site is *exactly* the
correct way to do it.  Some people may think that it is more expensive
than a "mail-server", but they are VERY MUCH MISTAKEN.

With an anonymous UUCP setup, the person who wants the stuff gets to
pay for the call.  There seems to be something basically *right* about
this, to me.  The person making the call also gets to decide whether
to place the call when phone rates are expensive or cheap and which
long distance company will give him/her the best KBytes/$.

With a "mail-server", everybody along the uucp path between the person
who wants the goodies and the server gets to pay for the calls to
transport the stuff.  Some sites will pay twice (once to bring it in and
once to send it out again).  Some of those links are set up for automatic
forwarding of mail and allow the forwarding of mail during "prime time"
(high phone $$).  There seems to be something basically *wrong* about
this, to me.

Maybe there are five "hops" between you and the "mail-server".  That
means that (up to) five different sites must pay to send the software
five times.  Even if all five were "local" calls, I'm pretty sure I
can call from Chicago to Los Angeles (night/weekend) for less than
it would cost me to call into downtown Chicago five times.  Not only
are the costs of an anonymous UUCP server allocated "fairly", but the
total cost can be much lower.

Besides, why should my company have to pay the phone bills for you to
get software that we've already paid to send around once before and you
just missed?  A pox on "mail-servers"!
-- 
Ron Heiby, heiby@chg.mcd.mot.com	Moderator: comp.newprod
"Life is indeed an inexplicable sequence of imponderable surprises."