Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!TUT.CIS.OHIO-STATE.EDU!mdf From: mdf@TUT.CIS.OHIO-STATE.EDU (Mark D. Freeman) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Is there a path from BITNET to Compuserve? Message-ID: <12091@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 30 Apr 88 19:44:37 GMT References: <734NU115247@NDSUVM1> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: mdf@tut.cis.osu-state.edu (Mark D. Freeman) Organization: StrongPoint Systems, Inc.; Columbus, OH. (guest of Ohio State U.) Lines: 35 Approved: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu In <734NU115247@NDSUVM1> NU115247@ndsuvm1.BITNET writes: >I would like to know if there is a path between BITNET and Compuserve?? According to some poeple at CompuServe whom I spoke with last week, connecting CompuServe to non-commercial networks causes an interesting problem. If you send mail FROM CompuServe to another network, CompuServe can bill the sender (who obviously has a CompuServe account). If you send mail TO CompuServe, who do they bill for the resources to process it? You can't charge the RECEIVING CompuServe account, as the mail might be unsolicited and/or something the CompuServe user doesn't want to pay for. They can't bill the non-commercial network, as there is no central organization with the authority and/or responsibility for such things. Creating a link from CompuServe to other commercial networks poses much less of a problem, in that they need a funny-money exchange agreement, just like what most universities do for interdepartmental use of CIS department computer time. So, there is no link between CompuServe and BITNET. It seems to me like the problem keeping that link from being created is insoluble. If you have any ideas on ways around the billing problem, I'd like to hear it. * I don't work for or use CompuServe in any way. -- Mark D. Freeman (614) 262-1418 mdf@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu 2440 Medary Avenue ...!cbosgd!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mdf Columbus, OH 43202-3014 Guest account at The Ohio State University