Xref: utzoo comp.mail.uucp:6858 news.admin:15275
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!sci.ccny.cuny.edu!dsndata!unocss!fg041
From: fg041@unocss.unomaha.edu (fg041)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,news.admin
Subject: Re: Is UUNET going to upgrade?
Message-ID: <3303@unocss.unomaha.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 91 17:06:54 GMT
References: <1991Jun8.210644.4897@shaman.com>
Reply-To: fg041@unocss.UUCP (Jack Winslade)
Organization: Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha - Computer Science
Lines: 38

>	Does anyone know if UUNET is going to get an upgrade soon? I know
>about their recent upgrade, but I've been experiencing severe delays when
>communicating with them -- sometimes so severe my machine timeouts and
>stops talking.

Last week we (not this site, another one) had several sessions with UUNET
which croaked due to timeouts.  I sent them a note about this and got an
apology and they explained it was a disk controller problem and that it
would be fixed Real Soon Now.  It was, and sessions since Tuesday have been
ok.  (We still see frequent 1-2 second pauses, but everyone tells me this
is normal for UUNET.)

> ... This would be beneficial for them since it would reduce the
>load on any one machine. If they NFS mounted their files across the
>network, then they wouldn't have to have their whole archive on one
>computer too.

The note I received implied that they were running different machines for
news and mail.  I watched a couple of the bad sessions and saw it hang just
at the point all mail came in and it would normally start sending the news
batches.  A couple of times I forced uucico to do an immediate re-poll and
got the news to come through fine, but again sometimes it did not.

> I think it's time UUNET expanded. What do you others think?
>Replies to comp.mail.uucp or news.admin please, I want to get a 
>discussion going.

The only gripe I have is that the throughput is less than at other sites.
However, we recently switched from a few 'good buddy' type news feeds to
UUNET and it is a world of difference as far as quality of the feed.  
After putting up with delayed stuff, missing stuff, massive dupes, and
frequent drought-flood cycles, I can live with the slight delays, although
I do think they should do something about it.  I have found that by polling
at times NOT on the hour or half hour, I get better throughput.
 
Good Day!         JSW

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