Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!schoff
From: schoff@uu.psi.com (Martin Schoffstall)
Subject: Re: UUPSI's new rules
Message-ID: <1991Mar27.073123.20863@uu.psi.com>
Organization: Performance Systems International, Inc.
References: <1991Mar23.155949.20164@tygra.UUCP> <1991Mar25.200324.22500@uu.psi.com> <40593@cup.portal.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 91 07:31:23 GMT

>Funny, I though trivial on-demand Internet access was the whole point
>of the dial-up IP code I recently saw on Usenet.  The Telebit
>NetBlazer seems to think it's pretty trivial...  (For those who haven't
>seen it, the NetBlazer is a dial-up IP router.  It uses dial-up modems
>to establish IP connections using SLIP or PPP.  I'm not affiliated
>with Telebit; I just think it's a neat product)
>
And PSINet has supported a form of dialup Internet access since the
Fall of 1990 for a flat fee....

But let's think about providing this as a service:

(1) who makes the phone calls?  If it is the customer, then everything
is fine for the service provider vis a vis billing the flat fee, but
what about the site inside the leased line Internet who wants to
reach that customer, he's out of luck.  If they both make the phone
calls then the service provider has to keep track of how many message
units are consumed (hopefully through SNMP stats) multiply by the
appropriate amount and bill it in addition to the fixed amount.

(2) How would you like to configure the DNS?  Is the primary at
the customer site or inside the leased line Internet.

(3) Where does email go for the customer site when it isn't connected?
If the service provider MX's for that site, how does it make final
delivery, UUCP? (too UNIX centric), POP3 (too individual centric),
SMTP with TURN (not readily available), SMTP without TURN (you
have to hope to match the window of availability), MMDF/TCP?

In reality you want to do whatever the customer wants, so you have
a lot of variability between customers.

I believe that dialup/switched/on-demand Internet access is a great
thing, we have over 100 customers who do this right now; however,
it is not trivial (for the reasons that I've outlined, and many
reasons that I haven't), and more importantly it is pointing out
some additional work that needs to be done in the Internet suite
to make it extrememly useful to the users.

Marty