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From: bblue@crash.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,news.misc
Subject: Re: Suggestion for a new pathalias cost value
Message-ID: <1146@crash.CTS.COM>
Date: Fri, 29-May-87 13:21:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: crash.1146
Posted: Fri May 29 13:21:23 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 30-May-87 11:03:42 EDT
References: <269@devon.UUCP>
Reply-To: bblue@crash.CTS.COM (Bill Blue)
Organization: Crash TS, El Cajon, CA
Lines: 45
Keywords: pathalias, maps, uucp, PC-Pursuit
Xref: utgpu comp.mail.uucp:508 news.misc:407

In article <269@devon.UUCP> paul@devon.UUCP (Paul Sutcliffe Jr.) writes:
>
>    With the increased use of PC-Pursuit  as  a  (lower  cost)  method  of
>    transferring mail and news between systems, perhaps we should consider
>    adding a new ``pathalias'' data value that could be used to  denote  a
>    PC-Pursuit connection.
...
>    What I'd like to see is something like:
>
>	PCP             900             local call (via PC-Pursuit)

Oh, heavens no!

First, even though PCP is low cost in terms of dollars, does not make
it low cost in terms of delivery times.  It is an after 6pm weekdays,
and 24hour weekends connection - that right there makes it hard to value
because pathalias has no idea of day distinctions.  But worse, even
though you can *use* it after 6pm and on weekends does not mean you can
get through! There are horrendous bottlenecks in certain areas using PC
Pursuit.  These bottlenecks can further delay mail by hours on end.  And
unless you've done some tweaking to your uucp (WINDOWS = 7, or use the f
protocol), throughput when you do finally connect is around 600bps.
Since the pathalias values are supposed to assess the cost of delivery
both in terms of real cost *and* delays encountered, the combination of
all of this makes for an EXPENSIVE connection.  If anything, under
average (non optimized and non-idea connectivity) conditions, the
pathalias cost should be HIGHER!

In my opinion, at the very least EVENING is generous for PCP use.  Under
optimized conditions where connectivity is first-call (or close) and
throughput is high (via the modifications mentioned above) you could
say EVENING+HIGH (yielding 1795) or subtract some other number that you
feel more closely approximates a realistic cost (maybe EVENING/2 or 
something).  But do it on a PER CONNECTION basis, taking into
consideration what the real delays and connection costs are for that
particular connection.  Assigning some new (cheap) PCP value would be a
disaster.

I have been using PC Pursuit for over a year now, from San Diego to
San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago.  At times
I have to poll manually during the day because mail queued for one of
these areas couldn't get delivered ALL NIGHT!  That doesn't sound like
bonus time to me...

--Bill