joel@gould9.UUCP (05/05/86)
[Preface to net.gods: this is not meant as a criticism, merely an observation on the deviation between theory and reality.] There are a large number of USENET sites on the west coast, including several "backbone" sites. However, there doesn't seem to be a lot of north/south traffic on the net, particularly to Southern California. Instead, news seems to propagate east/west several times before it reaches here. This has been noted many times previously by others. The path of the enclosed article (which may still be on your system) is perhaps exaggerated, but not really atypical. By my calculations, it took nearly 6 days, visited the east coast twice (mdivax1 is near Vancouver, B.C.) and went through 25 sites before coming to San Diego via the "unofficial" decvax->ittatc->dcdwest->sdcsvax link (which, although not a "backbone" link, carries about 85% of the traffic into San Diego) Path: sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittatc!decvax!bellcore!petrus!sabre!zeta!epsilon!gamma!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!qantel!lll-lcc!lll-crg!seismo!rochester!bullwinkle!uw-beaver!ubc-vision!mdivax1!haft From: haft@mdivax1.UUCP (haft) Newsgroups: net.wanted,net.decus,net.unix Subject: NFS and ULTRIX Message-ID: <201@mdivax1.UUCP> Date: 25 Apr 86 16:57:06 GMT Date-Received: 1 May 86 00:38:25 GMT Organization: Mobile Data International Inc., Rich., B.C., Canada Lines: 14 Some other paths: Path: pyramid!pesnta!hplabs!qantel!lll-lcc!lll-crg!seismo!rochester!bullwinkle!uw-beaver!ubc-vision!mdivax1!haft Date-Received: 30 Apr 86 10:24:41 GMT Path: bonnie!clyde!watmath!utzoo!utcsri!ubc-vision!mdivax1!haft Date-Received: 1 May 86 01:37:28 GMT I would note that the actual path bares only slight resemblance to the nominal backbone links. In particular, uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs uw-beaver!tektronix!decvax ubc-vision!alberta!ihnp4 each had 4 days or so and still couldn't beat a more circuitous route. (Just for fun, I've shown the west coast sites in upper case.) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>(1 site)>>>>>>>V ^ May 1 V cbosgd-----------------------^-----------clyde<<<<<<<<<watmath<<<<<<<<utzoo | >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>^>>>>>>>>> | : | ^ ^ > | : ihnp4-------alberta------UBC-VISION V burl : ^ \ Apr 25^ V V | >>>>>(5 sites)>>>>V : ^ cuae2 <<<UW-BEAVER >>>ulysses-------------bellcore : ^ V | V : ^ V TEKTRONIX---------------------------decvax---linus ^ V | /V| | QANTEL>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>V>>> | OLIVEB------GLACIER------DECWRL V| | ^ V > | / V| | ^ kddlab------------V---HPLABS-------SDCRDCF V| | ^ | (2 sites) : Apr 30 | V| | ^ | V : SDCSVAX<<<<<<(2 sites)<<| | ^ | V hao | May 1 | | ^ | V : drillsys | | ^ | >>>>V : | | | ^ mcvax.................seismo........gatech-----akgua-----mcnc----philabs ^ < \ | LLL-LCC<<<<<LLL-CRG<<<<<<<<<< \--------------------------------------cmcl2 Sure, this shows that there's enough redundancy in the net that news will propagate even when several backbone links are out. But it also suggests that some of these links are nominal at best. Also, I suspect there should be more efficient ways of moving the news along the west coast rather that sending it trans-continent 4 times. (PS: I would appreciate any date stamps and paths from other backbones). -- Joel West (619) 457-9681 CACI, Inc. Federal, 3344 N. Torrey Pines Ct., La Jolla, CA 92037 {cbosgd, ihnp4, sdcsvax, ucla-cs} !gould9!joel joel%gould9.uucp@NOSC.ARPA
rap@oliveb.UUCP (05/07/86)
I have to agree with this, especially in view of the recent talk of cutting the costs of net news. Our Unix Administration group, not too long ago, pointed out two Eastern sites to each other that were about 25 miles or so apart and were both polling California for news and mail. Maybe someone should take a good look at the distribution paths of net news and recommend a reorganization to the appropriate system administrators. -- Robert A. Pease {hplabs|zehntel|fortune|ios|tolerant|allegra|tymix}!oliveb!oliven!rap
glenn@sdcrdcf.UUCP (05/13/86)
UUCP on the machine "sdcrdcf" has had many problems during the last 5 or 6 months. We apologise for the inconvenience that may have resulted due to slow news or mail. About six months ago we moved the entire computer facility from one building to another (brand new) building. Moving that machine ('780) was like moving an old piano -- it's never quite the same again. We've also had no end of trouble with telephone lines and electrical power. More recently we've had problems with the sdcrdcf <--> sdcsvax link but, as of the last few days, things are looking much better. We're under a LOT of pressure to reduce our phone bills. So we've reduced sites and make calls during the night as much as possible. From what I hear They're trying to keep from making many long-distance calls, which naturally increases the burden of sdcrdcf to move news and mail. We're sticking with it at least until there is some reorganisation of USENET to see if we can still afford to provide the service we are now. Hopefully there will be a more diverse set of backbone hosts and that will relieve the current backbone from moving *all* of the traffic. Glenn -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glenn C. Scott System Development Corporation, 2525 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA. 90406 213-820-4111 X5653 UUCP: glenn@sdcrdcf.UUCP ARPA: Scott@DOCKMASTER.ARPA
joel@gould9.UUCP (05/13/86)
In article <526@gould9.UUCP>, I wrote: > The path of the enclosed article (which may still be on your system) > is perhaps exaggerated, but not really atypical. > > Path: sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittatc!decvax!bellcore!petrus!sabre!zeta!epsilon!gamma!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!qantel!lll-lcc!lll-crg!seismo!rochester!bullwinkle!uw-beaver!ubc-vision!mdivax1!haft ... > Message-ID: <201@mdivax1.UUCP> It appears that both sdcrdcf and cbosgd have been having problems recently (I understand the latter is fixed). And anyone who's seen hplabs!Unknown will know that hplabs has been having problems. On the positive side, I'd just like to note the following article from the same site: Path: gould9!ncr-sd!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!tektronix!uw-beaver!ubc-vision!mdivax1!haft From: haft@mdivax1.UUCP (haft) Newsgroups: net.periphs,net.graphics,net.wanted Subject: Terminal Graphics Message-ID: <208@mdivax1.UUCP> Date: 9 May 86 23:14:25 GMT Date-Received: 12 May 86 11:25:56 GMT After my previous observation, this article followed *EXACTLY* the prescribed backbone path. It never even left the west coast. Does the man have power, or what? :-) -- Joel West (619) 457-9681 CACI, Inc. Federal, 3344 N. Torrey Pines Ct., La Jolla, CA 92037 {cbosgd, ihnp4, sdcsvax, ucla-cs} !gould9!joel joel%gould9.uucp@NOSC.ARPA