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From: gws@xenitec.on.ca (Geoff Scully)
Newsgroups: news.admin,comp.mail.uucp
Subject: Re: BITFTP
Message-ID: <1991May20.060257.8194@xenitec.on.ca>
Date: 20 May 91 06:02:57 GMT
References: <I=EBILB@xds13.ferranti.com>
Followup-To: comp.mail.uucp
Distribution: na
Organization: Xenitec Consulting Services, Kitchener, ON, CANADA
Lines: 45

In article <I=EBILB@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>gws@xenitec.on.ca (Geoff Scully) writes:
>> Oh, and for those people (like Peter) who complain about how much of a
>> hassle it is to set up direct connects to anon-uucp sites to do these
>> transfers, all I can say is, tuff luck. 
>
>I'm not complaining. I'm explaining.
>

I grant the distinction. I really was not trying to pick on you
personally Peter, but just happened to remember your name anong those
who stated (often correctly) that setting up connects to anon-uucp sites
is a hassle. Perhaps I just had too much of other people's "I don't want
to be hassled, I have a right to have it handed to me" attitude.

>People *will* do the convenient thing. I'm trying to show how the convenient
>thing can be made the right thing to do. Think of it as the moral equivalent
>of pushing for more recycling centers. If people have to drive 20 miles to
>recycle their milk jugs, they'll toss them in the trash. If people have to
>go through hassles to get files from anonymous-uucp, they'll use mail servers.
>If they can set up *one* script for *one* site, either with a 900 number or
>a service agreement, and type:
>
> [rftp stuff]
>
>whenever they want a file, they'll do that instead of
>
> [BITFTP stuff]
>
>It's just as easy to set up and way more convenient to unpack.

You bet. Just to clear something up for those of you who think I am of
the "Don't you dare read a file into mail!" attitude, I have no problem
with 1 hop from the internet transfers like this, where it is known in
advance by the upstream admin that this will happen. My problem is with
mailservers and things like BITFTP which send files over multiple hop
connections, where the admins in line may not be prepared or willing to
accept such large volumes. I agree that your ideas and others proposed
here provide for acceptable alternatives to the BITFTP problems.

---
Geoff Scully                    Support Services -- XeniTec Consulting Services
Internet: gws@xenitec.on.ca		   UUCP: ..!{uunet!}watmath!xenitec!gws
"We need to look at what we owe each other, rather than what we can make off
each other." Bob Rae, National Disaster Party, Ontario Premier elect. 09/06/90