415 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
415 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
>From: rick@usenix.UUCP (Rick Adams)
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Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix,news.admin,news.stargate,comp.sources.d
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Subject: UUNET Communications Service Available
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Message-ID: <43389@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV>
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Date: 11 Apr 87 04:50:54 GMT
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Date-Received: 11 Apr 87 06:15:58 GMT
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Expires: 31 Jul 87 04:00:00 GMT
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Sender: rick@seismo.CSS.GOV
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Reply-To: rick@seismo.CSS.GOV
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Followup-To: news.misc
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Distribution: na
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Organization: Usenix Association
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Lines: 124
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Xref: bu-cs comp.org.usenix:107 news.admin:292 news.stargate:91 comp.sources.d:552
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The Usenix Association is pleased to announce the funding of the UUNET
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project on an experimental basis. This continues the association's
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goals of fostering innovation and promoting the import and export of
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new ideas.
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UUNET is a non-profit communications service designed to provide access
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to USENET news, UUCP mail, ARPAnet mail, and various source archives at
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low cost by obtaining volume discounts. There are no restrictions on
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what you may send nor on redistributing what you obtain from or through
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UUNET. UUNET is effectively a common carrier. Charges are calculated to
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recover costs.
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Operationally, UUNET consists of a 10 processor Sequent Balance 21000
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located in Arlington, VA. The system is connected to Tymnet via a
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high-speed leased line. It can easily handle 25 simultaneous uucico
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transfers and will be upgraded to match demand. It is administered by
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the same people who are currently administering "seismo" (everybody's
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favorite mail relay...). Operations personnel are on site 24 hours/day
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Monday - Friday and someone is always on call on weekends. Availability
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and reliability of the system will be high. The system is dedicated to
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UUNET and has no function other than as a communications relay.
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Currently the UUNET machine is tightly coupled to "seismo". This means
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that having a connection to UUNET is effectively having a connection to
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seismo, i.e. a well connected news and mail relay. UUNET should be
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fully operational on May 1.
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To access the UUNET system from within the United States, you dial a
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local phone number (from thousands of US cities) and connect to
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Tymnet. You are then connected to UUNET via the Tymnet X.25 public
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data network. International sites may access UUNET via direct
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host-to-host X.25 connection. No special hardware or software is
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required. The connection to Tymnet is made with an ordinary modem
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(V.22bis/Bell 212A/Bell 103). The standard UUCP communications
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protocols are supported. Accessing UUNET will be as easy as with any
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other UUCP connection.
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The cost is $3 per hour of connect time during off-peak times ($5 per
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hour from Hawaii). Off-peak times are 6:00 PM to 7:00 AM Monday -
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Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday. (Your time zone is used to
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determine peak or off-peak time, not necessarily the time zone in which
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the UUNET system is located). It is anticipated that the most traffic
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will take place during off-peak rates. Access is available during peak
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rate times at substantially higher rates ($20 - $32 per hour depending
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on location). There is a membership charge of $30 per month (less than
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$1 per day) to cover administrative costs.
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By comparison, ATTMAIL charges $2 per month membership and about $30
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per connect hour. ATTMAIL does not offer off-peak rates. CSNET charges
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a membership fee in the thousands of dollars annually, $54 per connect
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hour during peak times and $30 per hour during off-peak hours. UUNET is
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not intended to compete directly with either ATTMAIL or CSNET. Their
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higher fees include additional services and a much larger support
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organization. If you do not need (or can't afford) their extra
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services, then UUNET may be for you.
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There are several reasons why you should use the UUNET service.
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1) Cost: If you are currently paying for long distance calls to send
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uucp mail or news, then you should save a substantial amount of money
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in communications costs.
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2) Reliability: UUNET exists as a communications relay. It will never
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be unavailable because some other project needs it. Nor will it be
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unavailable because no one has the time to maintain it. It is run as
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a business, not as sideline nor as a favor to other sites. The number of
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intermediate hops for news and mail will be greatly reduced, thereby
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increasing the reliability.
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3) Availability: UUNET will be the best connected news machine in the
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country. ANYONE can be directly connected to a backbone site and not
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have to depend on the kindness of others to redistribute newsgroups
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that are important to you. Of course, you may have a full newsfeed, a
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partial newsfeed, or none at all. You get what you are willing to pay
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for. (A full news feed would cost about $150 per month in connect
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time.) UUNET will always carry all newsgroups. This includes any new
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news categories that may appear other than the "standard" set.
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4) Accessibility: UUNET will be able to function as an official gateway
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into the ARPANET. This also means that you will be able to directly
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access other networks that are similarly gatewayed into the ARPANET
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(E.g. BITNET, CSNET, etc). In the future, gateways to other existing
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mail services will be provided (E.g. MCImail, Telemail, etc). UUNET can
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also act as the mail forwarder for your domain.
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5) Archives: UUNET will make available for uucp access an extensive
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archive of publicly available Unix software. At a minimum, this will
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include the latest GNU software, the latest Kermit distributions (for
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many cpu types, not just Unix), all the ARPANET RFCs, access to the
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Simtel-20 archives, and the netlibd archives at Argonne (EISPACK,
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LINPACK, etc). Again, you pay only for the cost of transferring the
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software. You will never again have to worry about how to obtain
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software that is "available for public ftp". It will be made available
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for you to uucp.
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As previously mentioned, Usenix has funded UUNET for an experimental
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period. Currently funding exists through July 31. To offer these
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services at these prices, UUNET must generate a large volume of
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traffic. If a large enough volume of traffic is seen by the end of
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July, Usenix will spin off the UUNET experiment into an independent
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non-profit organization that will continue the service with the same
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basis. If a large enough interest is not shown to allow UUNET to
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recover its operating costs, Usenix will regrettably have to
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discontinue funding.
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In summary, if your organization has come to depend on electronic mail
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and news as part of its daily business, you need a professional
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communications service that you can depend on. If you are considering
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subscribing to UUNET, please do so soon. If enough early support is not
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shown, the service may not be available when you decide you need it.
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As an incentive, any organization subscribing to UUNET in April will
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have its May membership fee waived. (So, for the first month, your only
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risk in trying the service is the hourly connect charge).
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For a subscription form or for further information, please contact:
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Peter Salus
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UUNET/Usenix
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P.O. Box 2299
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Berkeley, CA 94710
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+1 415 528 8649
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{seismo,ucbvax,cbosgd,ames,amdahl}!usenix!peter
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---rick
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>From bu-cs!husc6!seismo!uunet!rick
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Article 189 of comp.org.usenix:
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bds beta 6/6/85; site bu-cs.BU.EDU
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Path: bu-cs!husc6!seismo!uunet!rick
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>From: rick@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Adams)
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Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix
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Subject: UUNET Project Progress Report
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Message-ID: <123@uunet.UU.NET>
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Date: 21 May 87 23:45:57 GMT
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Date-Received: 22 May 87 01:02:23 GMT
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Organization: UUNET Communications Services, Arlington, VA
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Lines: 54
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The UUNET project has been in service for a week providing news
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and mail service to 34 sites. Well over 100 sites have requested
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subscription information and the responses so far have
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been very enthusiastic.
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Overall, performance has been very good. Most sites are averaging
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about 1000 bps throughput on a 1200 bps modem and 1950 bps on a
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2400 bps modem. The long delays observed with services like
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PC Pursuit have not been experienced.
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The machine availability has been 100% (i.e. no down time yet...).
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Source archive access should be available soon. We expect to provide
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an archive server similar to the others currently in use.
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The biggest problem encountered so far was determining that certain
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older uucps terminate the strings that they send to log in with a
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\n instead of a \r (This is a bug. It is fixed in 4.2/4.3 BSD and Honey
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DanBer at least). This \n confused the login program and 3 sites
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could not get logged in. Changing their L.sys entries to an explicit \r\c
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solved that problem.
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Following is a current uucp map entry for the uunet machine.
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---rick
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[This is intended to be a progress report and not a commercial. If you
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want more information, send email to usenix!peter]
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#N uunet
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#S Sequent Balance 21000; Dynix 2.1.1
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#O UUNET
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#C Rick Adams
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#E uunet!postmaster
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#T +1 703 276 7900
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#P P.O. Box 2299, Berkeley, CA 94710
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#L 38 53 40.5 N / 77 04 34.5 W
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#R Physically in Arlington, VA
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#W rick@seismo.CSS.GOV (Rick Adams); 20 May 87
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#U seismo pcrat swlabs ccicpg lll-winken ukma tg iscuva madhat
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#
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# siamese twin
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#
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uunet seismo(1)
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#
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uunet usenix(DEMAND), micropro(DEMAND), rodan(DEMAND), ccicpg(DEMAND),
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grand(DEMAND), tg(DEMAND), peregrine(DEMAND), pcrat(DEMAND),
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ednor(DEMAND), tekbspa(DEMAND), housun(DEMAND), pilchuck(DEMAND),
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wp3b01(DEMAND), siia(DEMAND), oswald(DEMAND), swlabs(DEMAND),
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crdnl(DEMAND), hpda(DEMAND), quick(DAILY), epicb(DEMAND),
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unrvax(EVENING), lll-winken(DEMAND), desint(DEMAND), garfield(DEMAND),
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iscuva(DEMAND), hnsurg3(DEMAND), rosevax(DEMAND), virginia(DEMAND),
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madhat(DEMAND), ukma(DEMAND), ora(DEMAND), arnold(DEMAND),
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metasoft(DEMAND)
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>From rick@usenix.UUCP Thu Jun 25 14:29:31 1987
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Article: 589 of news.misc:
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Path: bu-cs!bloom-beacon!husc6!seismo!usenix.UUCP!rick
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From: rick@usenix.UUCP (Rick Adams)
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Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix,news.misc
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Subject: UUNET Communications Service Available
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Date: 24 Jun 87 22:45:26 GMT
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Date-Received: 25 Jun 87 01:44:50 GMT
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Organization: Usenix Association
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Keywords: new improved
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Xref: bu-cs comp.org.usenix:250 news.misc:589
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UUNET General Information
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At the Winter 87 USENIX Conference in Washington, DC, the
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USENIX Association announced the funding of the UUNET project on
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an experimental basis. UUNET became operation in mid-May and
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currently has over fifty subscribers.
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UUNET is non-profit communications service that provides ac-
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cess to USENET news, UUCP mail, and many standards (including the
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Internet RFCs and comp.std.unix archives). UUNET is the newest
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experimental project of the USENIX Association and has the unpre-
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cedented cooperation of DARPA.
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For this experiment, DARPA has authorized the use of the
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Center for Seismic Studies personnel, resources and communica-
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tions facilities. This allows UUNET to house its host computer
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at a well-staffed and maintained computer center and to provide
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the high quality services necessary for this project. In addi-
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tion, DARPA has authorized use of the ARPANET gateway at the
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Center on an experimental basis to test the feasibility of mail
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forwarding between ARPANET and non-ARPANET sites.
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This is the first time a joint project like this has been
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initiated and the experiment will be carefully conducted to as-
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sure that all ARPANET and Center policies are followed. The
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technical results of the experiment will be presented to DARPA
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for their consideration of the long term possibilities of contin-
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ued interconnection and to USENIX for their funding considera-
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tion.
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Why Should I Subscribe?
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1) Cost: If you are currently paying for long distance calls to
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send uucp mail or news, then you should save a substantial
|
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amount of money in communications costs.
|
||
|
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2) Reliability: UUNET exists as a communications relay. It will
|
||
never be unavailable because some other project needs it.
|
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Nor will it be unavailable because no one has the time to
|
||
maintain it. It is run as a dedicated service, not as a
|
||
sideline nor as a favor to other sites. The number of in-
|
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termediate hops for news and mail will be greatly reduced,
|
||
thereby increasing the reliability.
|
||
|
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3) Availability: UUNET will be the best connected news machine in
|
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the country. _A_n_y_o_n_e can be directly connected to a backbone
|
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site and not have to depend on the kindness of others to
|
||
redistribute newsgroups that are important to you. Of
|
||
course, you may have a full newsfeed, a partial newsfeed, or
|
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none at all. You get what you are willing to pay for. (A
|
||
full news feed would cost about $175 per month in connect
|
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time.) UUNET will always carry all newsgroups. This includes
|
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any new news categories that may appear other than those in
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the _s_t_a_n_d_a_r_d set.
|
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4) Accessibility: UUNET has been authorized to function as an AR-
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PANET mail gateway. Gateways to other networks and mail ser-
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vices will also be set up. UUNET can also act as the ARPANET
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mail forwarder for your domain.
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5) Archives: UUNET will make available for uucp access an exten-
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sive archive of publicly available UNIX software. At a
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minimum, this will include the latest GNU software, the la-
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test Kermit distributions (for many cpu types, not just
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UNIX), all the ARPANET RFCs, the latest UUCP map information
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(updated daily from the master copy), access to the Simtel-
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20 archives, and the netlibd archives at Argonne (EISPACK,
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LINPACK, etc). Again, you pay only for the cost of transfer-
|
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ring the software. You will never again have to worry about
|
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how to obtain software that is _a_v_a_i_l_a_b_l_e _f_o_r _p_u_b_l_i_c _f_t_p. It
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will be made available for you to uucp.
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How Does It Work?
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Operationally, UUNET consists of a 10 processor Sequent B21
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located at the Center for Seismic Studies in Arlington, VA. The
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system is connected to Tymnet via a high-speed leased line. It
|
||
can easily handle 25 simultaneous uucico transfers and will be
|
||
upgraded to match demand. It is administered by the same people
|
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who are currently administering _s_e_i_s_m_o (everybody's favorite mail
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relay...). Operations personnel are on site 24 hours/day Monday
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- Friday and someone is always on call on weekends. Availability
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and reliability of the system will be high. The system is dedi-
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cated to UUNET and has no function other than as a communications
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relay. Currently the UUNET machine is tightly coupled to _s_e_i_s_m_o.
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This means that having a connection to UUNET is effectively hav-
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ing a connection to _s_e_i_s_m_o, i.e. a well connected news and mail
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relay. The UUNET system is now fully operational.
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To access the UUNET system from within the United States,
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you dial a local phone number (from thousands of US cities) and
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connect to Tymnet. You are then connected to UUNET via the Tym-
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net X.25 public data network. International sites may access
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UUNET via direct host-to-host X.25 connection. No special
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hardware or software is required (other that the standard UNIX
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UUCP programs). The connection to Tymnet is made with an ordi-
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nary modem (V.22bis/Bell 212A/Bell 103). Accessing UUNET will be
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as easy as with any other UUCP connection.
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What Does It Cost?
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The cost is $3 per hour of connect time during off-peak
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times ($5 per hour from Hawaii). Off-peak times are 6:00 PM to
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7:00 AM Monday - Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday. (Your
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time zone is used to determine peak or off-peak time, not neces-
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sarily the time zone in which the UUNET system is located). Time
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is charged by the minute, with a 3 minute minimum per connection.
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It is anticipated that most traffic will take place during off-
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peak rates. Access is available during peak rate times at sub-
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stantially higher rates ($20 - $32 per hour depending on loca-
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tion). UUNET can also call you for $20 per hour. There is a
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membership charge of $30 per month (less than $1 per day) to cov-
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er administrative costs.
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Summary
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As previously mentioned, USENIX has funded UUNET for an ex-
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perimental period. Currently funding exists through November 1.
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To offer these services at these prices, UUNET must generate a
|
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large volume of traffic. If a large enough volume of traffic is
|
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seen by the middle of October, USENIX will spin off the UUNET ex-
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periment into an independent non-profit organization that will
|
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continue the service with the same basis. If a large enough in-
|
||
terest is not shown to allow UUNET to recover its operating
|
||
costs, USENIX will regrettably have to discontinue funding.
|
||
|
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If your organization has come to depend on electronic mail
|
||
and news as part of its daily business, you need a professional
|
||
communications service that you can depend on. If you are consid-
|
||
ering subscribing to UUNET, please do so soon. If enough early
|
||
support is not shown, the service may not be available when you
|
||
decide you need it.
|
||
|
||
For a subscription form or for further information, please contact:
|
||
Peter Salus
|
||
UUNET/USENIX
|
||
P.O. Box 2299
|
||
Berkeley, CA 94710
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+1 415 528 8649
|
||
{seismo,uunet,ucbvax,cbosgd,ames,amdahl}!usenix!uunet-request
|
||
|
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>From rick@uunet.UU.NET Fri Aug 28 15:32:27 1987
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Article: 305 of comp.org.usenix:
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||
Path: bu-cs!bloom-beacon!husc6!ut-sally!seismo!uunet!rick
|
||
From: rick@uunet.UU.NET (Rick Adams)
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||
Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix,news.misc
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Subject: UUNET progress report
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Date: 26 Aug 87 22:54:01 GMT
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Date-Received: 28 Aug 87 09:20:44 GMT
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Organization: UUNET Communications Services, Arlington, VA
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Xref: bu-cs comp.org.usenix:305 news.misc:826
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This is a short progress report on the UUNET experiment sponsored by
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the Usenix Association.
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As of today, we have 92 sites using the system. Of those 92, 65
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are getting some amount of news. (It is always interesting to see
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what news groups people are willing to pay for). We are averaging
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about 65-70 connect hours per day and have had as many as 17 simultaneous
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connections. The system seems to be able to handle the load with no problem.
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A majority of the connections that were using seismo have moved to
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the uunet machine. This includes all of the foreign connections via x.25.
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(When seismo retires next week, the only way to get to most of those
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sites will be through uunet.)
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800 service is due to be installed on Sept 1, which will allow
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a reasonable rate to be charged ($15 per connect hour) during the day
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instead of the absurd $20 currently being charged if Tymnet is used.
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We have been testing some of the newest Telebit Trailblazer modems
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with the uucp g protocol 'spoofing'. They have worked well and
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will be available on the 800 numbers as well as via a normal dialup
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connection. We have been getting an honest 10,000 bps throughput
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with these modems. Since this is about 5 times better than a 2400 bps
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modem, if you use a trailblazer on the new 800 service, you would
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be spending effectively $3 per hour to transfer the same data that you
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would spend $15 per hour with a 2400 bps modem. This is extremely
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cost effective for daytime mail.
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Telebit is offering a great deal for existing usenet sites. A 50%
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discount on one modem (This brings the price to under $700!). Watch
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for an official announcement from Telebit soon.
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The final status of uunet will be decided at the October board of
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directors meeting. Things look fairly good at this point, but only
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if new signups continue at the current rate.
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---rick
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|