Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!panda!husc6!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!im4u!milano!wex From: wex@milano.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sources.bugs Subject: Re: Network hospitality abuse Message-ID: <1455@milano.UUCP> Date: Wed, 14-May-86 11:43:36 EDT Article-I.D.: milano.1455 Posted: Wed May 14 11:43:36 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 17-May-86 03:33:01 EDT References: <2344@phri.UUCP> <3789@utah-cs.UUCP> Sender: wex@milano.UUCP Organization: MCC, Austin, TX Lines: 36 Summary: dealing with awkward mail situations (overload) In article <3789@utah-cs.UUCP>, donn@utah-cs.UUCP (Donn Seeley) writes: > Does anyone have a suggestion for handling these awkward situations? (referring to people shipping rogue sources across mail links and busting them.) The first thing to do is to update the new-users' guide to reflect this problem (much the way it reflects problems of flammage today). When we want to chastise incorrect behavior we need to have a source of correct information to point at. Second, we need to expand the routing tables so that in addition to frequency information, load information is also given. The information could contain an estimate of the amount of traffic a site is willing to accept, and an estimate of how much they're currently accepting. When a mail message (or group of messages) would exceed the willing threshold, the message(s) are delayed and the respective sysops are notified automatically. They can then negotiate an appropriate action (and possibly examine the contents of the mail). They could decide to reroute it, to reject it, to break it up into smaller chunks, to track down and lynch a repeat offender, etc. The costs of this idea are in sysop time and in getting and maintaining extra database information. Also, large messages will be slower to mail. The benefits are: reduced (and maybe eliminated) huge messages. Additionally, we might be able to catch bugs like that HP site that sent out their entire news directory. And, ultimately, we might be able to preserve some of the more fragile links (thus improving things for everyone). -- Alan Wexelblat ARPA: WEX@MCC.ARPA UUCP: {ihnp4, seismo, harvard, gatech, pyramid}!ut-sally!im4u!milano!wex "We do not act as a result of consideration, but as a way of being."