Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!ucbcad!pasteur!ucbvax!ucdavis!uop!robert
From: robert@uop.edu (Fred Flintstone)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Path files
Message-ID: <923@uop.edu>
Date: 20 Jan 88 06:43:13 GMT
Organization: Bedrock Community Unix Ctr.
Lines: 40
Keywords: "Best" vs. "Fastest"

I recently had the "excitement" of being part of a mailer grump that
was the result of the use of a path in our uucp/paths file.

I was testing possible paths to a friend in Southern California,
and had used two workable, but average paths.

So, I thought I would see what path was in our entry for that site.

Low and behold, the mail path was fewer machines, so I tried it.

Unfortunately, it blows through uunet from lll-winken, and guess what?

Yep, I got into some trouble due to fees for the link from uunet to
the So.Cal. machine that hooks up to my friend.

Normally, this might have occurred to me, but this time it did not.

My question is this: Are the files set up in a path alias group arranged
for speed? (this would make sense in one line of thinking).

Why not provide an alternate, like flying "coach".  Had I mailed to
user@system, it would have defaulted to the uunet path anyway, and
that seems abit unclean in the light of charges, and in the light
of the various west coast systems I can use to gain access.

I plead ignorance for using the "suggested" path, but does a better
way exist?  If I were a user that did not know the number of sites and
connections, then surely the problem would have been compounded by
mailing to user@system.

Is there a trade off for time and money?  Surely, an automated map 
update like that is costing someone something!!            

My apologies to this group if it is not the right place for such a
question.

Please respond by e-mail where economical
as I don't always get all of this group.

Thank you.