Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!mccall!tp From: tp@mccall.com Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: Imminent death of UUCP Zone predicted Message-ID: <3008.268b1e9a@mccall.com> Date: 29 Jun 90 09:25:45 GMT References: <1990Jun28.164938.23367@DSI.COM> Organization: The McCall Pattern Co., Manhattan, KS, USA Lines: 80 In article , karl_kleinpaste@cis.ohio-state.edu writes: > I have made this offer in the past, and I make it again now: > > +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ > | I, personifying the nameservers and mailers of Ohio State Computer | > | Science, am willing to be nameserver and MX for ___ANYBODY___ who is | > | willing to make the UUCP calls to osu-cis to pick up his/her own mail. | > +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Very laudable, and appreciated by many, I'm sure. What do you say to those who can get free uucp connections, but would have to pay to reach a generous internet site such as yourself? Many internet sites will refuse to provide MX forwarding, and some are incapable. (I'm not well versed on the issues involved with MX support, being a uucp site, so maybe they were capable but wanted to refuse politely.) Many people are only able to run uucp and get news precisely because it is free, in the sense that there is a local site willing to feed them, so there are no phone bills. I am one of those. Luckily, my feed site is able and willing to be an MX forwarder, but many aren't so lucky. Since most internet sites that are willing to be forwarders insist on a direct connection, many sites are left out in the cold. There either is a willing internet site local to you or there isn't. If there isn't, and you can't spend the LD, you're stuck. Interestingly, when I had my modem in New York City (via a leased line and stat mux we have connecting us there), I was unable to find any site that would be an MX forwarder for me. In fact I was unable to find any site that would provide me even a limited news feed! The only sites willing to be mail links to me were not on the internet. You see, in NYC "local" calls cost money. So even having a site in a large city doesn't guarantee that you can find an MX forwarder at other than long distance rates. When I moved my modem to Manhattan, Kansas, I was able to get a mail and news link and MX forwarder from Kansas State University, which other than a few PC's has the ONLY uucp sites in town. Size of the town is irrelevant, what matters is whether there is at least one "friendly" internet site around. > My only restriction is that I am severely limited in the amount of > long distance calling I can do, and so we support it only to our > vendors. Hence, you have to be willing & able to make the calls > yourself. But then, in keeping with my other philosophical viewpoints > about "them that wants the data pays the phone bill," this is Right. Not if they can get free access elsewhere. Note that in some cases it isn't the actual cost, but how to convince management to put it on the budget. > I also routinely help people get domain registrations accomplished > without being either NS or MX for them. I send them the canned form > from the NIC, with a little commnentary on how to fill it out, they > send it back, I add a bit of text about who the nameservers are, > contact a friend or two to set up a nameserver and/or secondary, and > away they go. Now this is an offer many would appreciate! It took me 3 months (and of course $35) to get registered through uunet. Even being on usenet, I had no idea that it could be done free. I thought the NIC had designated uunet as handling all requests from uucp sites. If I read your message right, I was ripped off, in that I could have sent my form to the NIC instead of uunet and saved my money (and 3 month lead time, probably). > IT'S NOT THAT TOUGH AND I AM TIRED OF PEOPLE BITCHING ABOUT IT BEING > TOUGH. THERE ARE THOSE OF US OUT HERE WHO WILL HELP. *ASK*! It's not tough if you can do it. For some people it is impossible. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that there are many, many others who will be very glad to hear of your offer. But for some people, it is not a workable solution, so they will continue running with unregistered hosts. Precisely why do all internet sites that act as MX forwarders insist on direct connections? After all, the indirect route that would be used is probably the route currently being used by the unregistered site. People don't mind routing for unregistered sites, but are unwilling to do it for registered sites. -- Terry Poot The McCall Pattern Company (uucp: ...!rutgers!ksuvax1!mccall!tp) 615 McCall Road (800)255-2762, in KS (913)776-4041 Manhattan, KS 66502, USA