Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!hadron!netxcom!ewiles
From: ewiles@netxcom.UUCP (Edwin Wiles)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Assistance for archive users
Message-ID: <653@netxcom.UUCP>
Date: 8 Feb 88 17:20:50 GMT
References: <2777@dasys1.UUCP> <6388@sol.ARPA> <758@zippy.eecs.umich.edu>
Reply-To: ewiles@netxcom.UUCP (Edwin Wiles)
Organization: NetExpress Communications, Inc., Vienna, VA
Lines: 35
Summary: Not by mail.

In article <758@zippy.eecs.umich.edu> dwt@zippy.eecs.umich.edu (David West) writes:
>In article <6388@sol.ARPA> ken@cs.rochester.edu (Ken Yap) writes:
>>Yes, yes, yes. Where to get free software via ftp/uucp/whatever seems
>>to be word-of-mouth knowledge. 
>
>Perhaps the single most important "whatever" would be one or more mail
>archive-servers, along the lines of netlib, but with the ability to
>handle binary, perhaps by uuencoding.  It is not always easy, or even
>possible, for some folks to retrieve archived material by ftp or uucp.
>-David.

It's a nice idea, but only for a world that does not have to pay
communications costs.  With FTP, the line is always there, so there's
not too much added costs.  With uucp, you're making a direct call to
the machine involved, so you're carrying the costs of getting your own
software (Fair, you pay for what you get.).

If you made it a mail server, then all the hops between you and the
archive site would have to pay comm costs.  This isn't too bad on some
routes, as they are local calls.  But there are routes that require
long distance calls, and these people would be screaming about the high
load that they are suddenly asked to support (Unfair, you're asking people
who don't even know you to pay for something rather large that only you and
your site can benefit from.).

Usenet is already a touchy topic in many companies, where if the accounting
department realized that the cost of this 'public service' was being eaten
by the company, it would stop.  This could seriously disable the network.
Having a mail server archive would definitely increase the comm costs.
[ Fortunately, I work for a semi-enlightened company. ]
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