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From: avolio@decuac.UUCP (Frederick M. Avolio)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Personal netnodes?
Message-ID: <536@decuac.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Jun-85 13:06:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: decuac.536
Posted: Tue Jun 18 13:06:11 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Jun-85 09:31:45 EDT
References: <2283@topaz.ARPA> <381@moncol.UUCP> <388@moncol.UUCP>
Organization: ULTRIX Applications Center, MD
Lines: 32
Summary: The problem of non-unique node names

In article <388@moncol.UUCP>, john@moncol.UUCP (John Ruschmeyer) writes:
> I have to admit I have made the common mistake of equating USENET and
> netnews...
> Let's restrict the discussion,then to the idea of a "personal" netnews
> site. I am sure that there are many users (students, etc.) who do not
> really use/need the electronic mail and file transfer capability of USENET,
> but who just read the news.

     Actually, USENET is define by paths over which news (net.announce)
is "transmitted." But everyone knows what is meant when one refers to a
"usenet" address (when they really mean INTERNET, UUCP, Enet, etc.) even
if that is incorrect.  And people "who just read the news" do use the
"file transfer capability" and if they ever need to reply, they use the
mail.  So, you cannot really divorce these areas.

     There is and will be a problem with addressing as more and more
sites "hook up." Whether they are personal computers or 8600s, the
same problems exist.  We will be (and are) seeing an explosion of
growth as more and more people hook up their workstations or PCs to
larger machines on a network. (We've seen a tremendous growth on DEC's
Enet as people hook up their PROs, microVAXen, and Rainbows.)

     A real problem begins to emerge as people name their machines and
then attach to an existing network.  Then you end up with 50 or so IBM-PCs
named "peanut", bunches of VAXen named KIM or ERNIE, and a whole lot of
other duplicated names (gizmo, stripe, osiris, vortex).

     If this subject interests you, you might be interested in the
discussion about addressing going on in net.mail (although it may be
dormant -- but probably not dead -- at this time).

-Fred