cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (06/09/88)
In article <1542@edison.GE.COM> mfs@edison.GE.COM writes: >Hey, bop@edison is out of town; how about youse UUCP experts sending me some >mail on becoming a News and Mail node. I've got an Amiga 500 too. The next question you ask yourself, "Do I have 30 - 60 megabytes of disk space to spare for news?" You say, "Oh I just want to get comp.sys.amiga and a couple of other groups." Then the answer is "Oh you only need 20 to 40 megabytes of hard disk *with nothing else on it*" This is not to discourage anyone, just to let them understand that you *must* have a hard disk to receive news, period. >Specifics: What software do I need (besides UUCP) and where do I get it ? You will need compress (16 bits, which implys > 2Meg of RAM) and either tar or tarsplit to break the news up into it's individual parts. Both of these are available on Fish Disks. Then you will need something that does what inews does (eg put the articles in the appropriate directories, queue articles you post to be sent out, etc) This you will have to write yourself or whack on whats on the uupc disk. Then you will need a 'front end' either an rn clone (or rn if you want to port it) and some sort of mail clone. > How do I use the software once I get it ? Beyond the scope of a net news message. Join news.admin and ask their whats involved. > What do I need to tell the guy giving me a feed ? Your phone number, your system name, and a password he can use to login with. You will also want to tell him how often to call you up. If it is a toll call he will ask you to call him instead and give you similar information. > What is actually happening; theory behind this stuff. The front end, rn, is giving your articles to inews to post on your system and to collect for out bound distribution. When you and your feed connect the next time, rnews will tar and compress those outgoing messages and send them to the feed, the feed will send over a bunch of tar'd and compressed articles. (These both use the UUCP protocols) then rnews will untar and unbatch the articles and give them to inews to put into the appropriate directories. > How do I let the outside world know where I am (Mail-wise) ? your mail path would become ...!feed!yoursystem in Usenet lingo. You would also send a mail message to Eric Fair at berkeley to put your system into the Usenet map and assure you that your system name doesn't collide with another machine name. >If it seems I don't know anything about this; you're right! Please, >some kind soul enlighten me. If it seems like this is not a straight forward thing to implement; you're right! The only system that you will be able to send and receive news on will be a 2.5-3M system with 20 - 120Meg of disk space. The news is running at about 30Meg a week these days so you can calculate about how much disk space you need using the formula (30Meg * weeks_left_online) + 10Meg. >Thanks, >Martin Your welcome. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
doug-merritt@cup.portal.com (06/12/88)
Chuck McManis wrote an excellent article about what one needs to do in order to run news, chock full of handy hints. He also said: >You say, "Oh I just want to get comp.sys.amiga >and a couple of other groups." Then the answer is "Oh you only need 20 >to 40 megabytes of hard disk *with nothing else on it*" This is not to >discourage anyone, just to let them understand that you *must* have a >hard disk to receive news, period. This is the *right* way to do it. That's not to say that a determined person cannot have a floppy-based Amiga as a net leaf. It's just that there would be continual nuisances involved. You would probably have to put two fresh diskettes in your drives every day (or night), so that your limited newsfeed would have 1.76 meg (880K x 2) to work with. That's enough for at least a *few* groups per day, like, say, all of the Amiga newsgroups. There might be times when it wasn't enough, and you might have to receive the remainder the next day with new floppies, etc. A pain. But then again, maybe not...I think that the average daily traffic for a full feed is around 5 megabytes per day (up from 3 megabytes not long ago). So 1.7 meg is a large percentage. I haven't figured it out, but it *might* even be enough for comp.* (excluding non-Amiga binaries), sci.* and news.*. Don't forget, by the way, that every site should receive news.announce. newusers, which has zero traffic except at the start of the month, when it has a bunch all at once. You also may want some of the net administration newsgroups. These "extra" but important groups contribute to the load. Of course, the news programs themselves will subtract from the 1.76Meg total. There's a series of documents written about the net that you will want. One set is the one that appears monthly in news.announce.newusers. Another is the set that is distributed with 'rn'; they give lots of info that will be useful to anyone who is trying to do a non-rn news system. Doug -- Doug Merritt ucbvax!sun.com!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt or ucbvax!eris!doug (doug@eris.berkeley.edu) or ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug
pete_ashdown@pedro.UUCP (Pete Ashdown) (06/14/88)
In article <55774@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) types about: >In article <1542@edison.GE.COM> mfs@edison.GE.COM writes: >>Hey, bop@edison is out of town; how about youse UUCP experts sending me some >>mail on becoming a News and Mail node. I've got an Amiga 500 too. >The next question you ask yourself, "Do I have 30 - 60 megabytes of disk >space to spare for news?" You say, "Oh I just want to get comp.sys.amiga >and a couple of other groups." Then the answer is "Oh you only need 20 >to 40 megabytes of hard disk *with nothing else on it*" This is not to >discourage anyone, just to let them understand that you *must* have a >hard disk to receive news, period. Chuck! Chuck! Chuck! I have been receiving news and mail on my Amiga for the past month. Right now, I receive comp.sys.all on a daily basis. So far, a half-full (or is it half-empty :-)) Amiga disk has been sufficient. Although there have been times that I wish I had a hard disk for this, it isn't an impossible dream. Once I adapt my Shell207 scripts to use the second drive and the RAM: disk, I think I'll be ready to accept about 10 more newsgroups. That is about all the average user wants anyway (isn't it?). >>Specifics: What software do I need (besides UUCP) and where do I get it ? Martin, once I have the scripts perfected, I'll send you a mailer package with everything you need. The only thing you won't be able to do is post news. What I do in this case is save the messages I want to respond to, edit them RAM: (or VD0:, whatever), call them sys.amiga1, sys.amiga2, sys.st1, etc. and call pedro and upload them to the appropriate group. It is more of a fault of pedro than of Amiga UUPC that you can not post news, so we hope to have a solution in the future. I put you on the list of people who want this package. Here's a hint though. If you aren't using Shell207M, START!! >> How do I use the software once I get it ? I'll put some documentation in with it. It is relatively easy, once you get the hang of it. >>If it seems I don't know anything about this; you're right! Please, >>some kind soul enlighten me. That's OK, you aren't alone. >If it seems like this is not a straight forward thing to implement; you're >right! The only system that you will be able to send and receive news on >will be a 2.5-3M system with 20 - 120Meg of disk space. The news is running >at about 30Meg a week these days so you can calculate about how much disk >space you need using the formula (30Meg * weeks_left_online) + 10Meg. "slack" = 1.5M system with two disk drives, never say "never," Chuck. If anyone needs more info or wants to be put on the mailing list of the UUPC/Shell system, send me mail. -- \ "I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm / / (^: preaching to." - J.R. "Bob" Dobbs in Newsweek :^) \ \ "Like, don't mail me on pedro! I live on slack!" - Pete in a fit of rage / / [uunet!iconsys!caeco!pedro!slack!pete] OR TRY [pete@slack.uucp (I hope)] \