Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!mcdchg!falkor!heiby From: heiby@falkor.UUCP (Ron Heiby) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: Mr. Moderator, please post zoo Message-ID: <175@falkor.UUCP> Date: 23 Aug 88 03:53:54 GMT References: <35180003@hpindda.HP.COM> Reply-To: heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby) Organization: Luck Dragons, Magic, & Friends Lines: 57 Dave Lowrey (dwl10@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com) writes: > OK, I admit my ignorance on FTP!!!! HOW do I access these archives. Please > assume I only have access to email & usenet. > > Please give specific examples. This is the most succinct expression of the "problem" I've yet seen. Many people have whined about not being on the ARPA Internet. Well, I'm not, either. I was, about five years ago. It was very convenient. At least one person has whined about not being able to add an L.Sys file entry, because he doesn't seem to know the phone number of his system administrator. But, this article forms the question quite well. "How can I access an archive site assuming I have only email and usenet?" My first question in response is, "What's your email and usenet connected to?" In other words, if you have managed to get an article off of amdahl, in fact out of .amdahl.com altogether, how did you do it? I presume that you used either the Netnews software or Notesfiles and that your article eventually reached a non-amdahl system from which it propagated according to normal Usenet propagation practices. Well, if that is the case, it likely reached that non-amdahl system by one of two mechanisms. It either got their via NNTP on the Internet or via UUCP. (It is possible that someone cut a tape or used Kermit or some other method, though I consider such to be highly unlikely.) In any event, your words reached the outside world. Even if your system does not have Internet access or modems, you can reach a system that does. Presumably, this system is also owned by your company. Now, let's assume that your company's management believes that accessing archives of various information is a *GOOD THING*. If they didn't, you shouldn't be trying to do this, anyway. In that case, you should go out and buy a modem for your PC. (Come to think of it, that's often the best approach, anyway.) Ok, so it's ok with Corporate for you to get archived material, but you are running into some kind of local political or security problem that keeps you from doing the simple (RTFM) thing on your customary system. In this case, you need to arrange for that system that can talk to the real world to do your archive accessing for you. One method would be to construct a daemon on that machine which would read its mailbox every now and then and convert mailed requests for files into FTP/UUCP requests of appropriate archives, mailing the requested files back (over the internal corporate network) to the originator of the request. Another method would use a private newsgroup. People wanting a file from an archive would post an article requesting the file. Perhaps the private group would be moderated, with the moderator being that same daemon, reading the requests in its mailbox. Perhaps the daemon would simply look for request articles in the newsgroup. But, in either case, the daemon would post the file back to the private newsgroup so that the entire company might benefit from the archive access (and its associated network/phone expense). If you can't do this, then you should re-visit the question of whether your company's management believes that archive access is a *GOOD THING*. You may have a sales job to do with upper management. Good luck. -- Ron Heiby, heiby@mcdchg.UUCP Moderator: comp.newprod & comp.unix "Failure is one of the basic Freedoms!" The Doctor (in Robots of Death)