Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!mailrus!iuvax!silver!gilbertd From: gilbertd@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Don Gilbert) Newsgroups: bionet.molbio.genbank Subject: Re: ANONYMOUS FTP FROM BITNET Message-ID: <61080@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> Date: 29 Sep 90 20:02:31 GMT References: <9009290610.AA23614@genbank.bio.net> Sender: news@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Organization: Biology, Indiana University - Bloomington Lines: 25 I would guess trying to pump megabyte-sized files thru bitnet is asking for trouble. It is a strain on Internet traffic using FTP to transfer the 50+ megabyte releases of Genbank, and the ability of Internet to transfer data is orders of magnitude greater than Bitnet. GenBank already provides two very handy services thru e-mail that should suffice for most individual users needs to have access to the most recent GenBank data: the FastA search and the retrieval of individual sequences. I also suggest that the most economical and useable way to receive quarterly updates of the full Genbank is to subscribe to the CD-Rom release. CD-Rom drives are inexpensive ($500-1000), can be put on about any microcomputer or workstation or vax. GenBank now sells their CDs for an annual subscription of $300 (for 4 releases). This cost should drop as more users subscribe, as the actual media cost of compact disks is quite low if enough copies are pressed. For instance, Apple Computer now prefers to release software on a CD rather than two or more floppies, as the cost to them is less (e.g., $1 or so). While the cost of using even FTP thru Internet may not be seen by you directly as an end user, we are paying for it thru federal taxes. Don.Gilbert@Iubio.Bio.Indiana.Edu biocomputing office, indiana univ., bloomington, in 47405, usa