Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!neat.cs.toronto.edu!church.csri.toronto.edu!moraes
Newsgroups: ont.uucp
From: moraes@csri.toronto.edu (Mark Moraes)
Subject: Re: Is it time for a "uunet-north"? 
Message-ID: <90Feb5.222929est.827@church.csri.toronto.edu>
cc: ont.uucp@cs.toronto.edu, unix-unanimous@moore.uucp
Distribution: ont
Date: 6 Feb 90 03:51:47 GMT
Lines: 27

 | or perhaps we could implement an ftp server which would allow subscribers
 | to request uploads - requests would be queued up, and the files would be
 | set for UUCP transmission to the requesting site upon arrival.

Also, cache all requests locally, to save several people getting the
same stuff across the Internet link.  This is especially important with
things like X11 or the GNU software.  (We at cs.toronto.edu have some
automated ftp shadowing tools in place already)

 |              I can see that in the early going, some of the stuff could be
 | kept offline on Exabyte tapes, available for downloading on N hours notice.

Exabyte tapes can store lots of stuff, but they aren't very fast
(compared to magtape or even cartridge tape), and they involve a human
to load appropriate tapes.  (Well, most of the archives can probably
fit on one Exabyte tape that could be kept in the drive all the time.
This will probably not be true after the next release of X :-)

A uunet-north would probably need:

+ lots of disk. (start in the gigabyte range)
+ lots of serial ports.
+ a powerful CPU. (handling a full feed of news can cripple
anything under a Sun3/180 without much effort right now)

The system had better be expandable or expendable. (news traffic
and mail volume has this tendency to grow rapidly...)