Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!motcsd!mcdcup!mcdchg!att!cbnewsk!rsb1 From: rsb1@cbnewsk.att.com (richard.s.brown) Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc Subject: Re: advantages of uucp over tcp/ip? Summary: tcp/ip, uucp, cu Message-ID: <1990Oct19.193632.7519@cbnewsk.att.com> Date: 19 Oct 90 19:36:32 GMT References: <12621@chaph.usc.edu> Distribution: usa Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 44 In article <12621@chaph.usc.edu>, szeto@aludra.usc.edu (Johnny Szeto) writes: > > Can someone give me an illustration what the advantages of > uucp over tcp/ip are? I come across all these commands like cu, uux, > etc. But why bother having them around if ftp and telnet are so much > easier to use with a single internet address? I'll take a shot... The advantages of uucp over tcp/ip go something like this: 1) UUCP queues jobs. If you want to copy a file (via 'rcp') and the network happens to be down, you must try later. If you want to run a remote execution (via rsh/remsh) and the network is down, you must try again later. UUCP queues the job and keeps trying until either the job is complete or a time limit (several days) expires. We actually run UUCP over TCP/IP for remote executions and E-mail. (Yeah, I know, I don't need uucp for mail, but it works well for us and I hate to fix something that isn't broken.) 2) UUCP is *CHEAP* to run. Just about any machine comes with at leastl one extra RS-232 port. If I need to get to a machine in Intercourse, PA and that machine does not have Internet access, it's a lot easier (and cheaper) to get uucp set up than to get TCP/IP set up. This may comes as a shock to many people, but not all UNIX machines have Internet access. Many machines at AT&T only have UUCP access to the handful of machines with Internet access. I hope this helps... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rich Brown {att!}vogon!rsb AT&T Network Systems OR Lisle, IL rsb@vogon.att.com