Xref: utzoo alt.config:88 news.config:501
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!hao!husc6!m2c!ulowell!page
From: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Newsgroups: alt.config,news.config
Subject: Re: The size of the 'alt' subnet
Message-ID: <5184@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 1 Mar 88 17:07:51 GMT
References: <5077@swan.ulowell.edu> <1939@epimass.EPI.COM> <5098@swan.ulowell.edu> <301@bacchus.DEC.COM> <8299@eddie.MIT.EDU> <303@bacchus.DEC.COM>
Reply-To: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Organization: University of Lowell, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 40

Yesterday I posted another list, based on an analysis of the Path:
lines.  Well, the script I used also counted usernames as host names
(ye old fencepost error strikes again).  The real count is 477 unique
sites that have passed an alt group towards ulowell in the past six
weeks, not the 852 that I originally came up with.

This is 73 less sites than were reported in the sendsys sample.
However, 284 of those hosts did not respond to my sendsys message,
making a combined total of 834 hosts.

In addition, 116 hosts did not respond to sendsys AND did not pass an
article, BUT filed an arbitron report claiming somebody there reads
at least one alt group.

Total hosts: 950 sites, plus or minus a few (due to duplicate host
names that I didn't catch) that get alt.  This does not include
those sites that:
	1. did not post an article in the past six weeks,
	2. did not pass an article towards ulowell in the past six weeks,
	3. did not respond to my sendsys control message, and
	4. did not file an arbitron report.
How many sites fall into that category?  Nobody can tell, although
I suspect there's quite a few.

I'd still like to see a better way of gathering network statistics.

..Bob

PS Here's how I got the list of hosts based on Path: lines.

#!/bin/sh
cd /usr/spool/news/alt
egrep "^Path: " */* |
	cut -d\  -f2 |
	awk -F! '{ for (i = 1; i < NF; i++) print $i }' $* |
	tr A-Z a-z |
	sort |
	uniq
-- 
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept.  page@swan.ulowell.edu  ulowell!page
"I don't know such stuff.  I just do eyes."  -- from 'Blade Runner'