werner@molokai.sw.mcc.com (Werner Uhrig) (06/01/89)
something like Brian Reid's archive-server by mail would, probably, be preferable for everyone involved. 1) these days there are a lot more sites which are not able or do not allow general FTP-capabilities (BITnet, USEnet, many more ..) 2) you want to control the load inflicted to your machine due to public service. you can schedule email file service to your off-hours, prioritize by msg-size, break files into chunks <60k, guaranteed not to get tossed by gateways; make it possible to request only "chunks" rather than whole files when you get something corrupted; treat mail differently depending where it goes (include a CRC for instant sanity checking in "chunks") you can keep a log of requests and requestors, bundle requests from the same site or corner of Worldnet and send one copy only to one requestor with instructions to redistribute locally to the others (you also send a note to the others indicating who got the goods, of course :-) you can also keep a log who "got the goods" last week and send only a note, pointing either to someone who has "it", or to a local archive-site, or a local BBS, or a local Users Group, or a local dealer, or ... remember, that when we are talking about serving Worldnet, we have to take care of such "remote" places as FidoNet, etc, where we can't simply mail the stack of Tech Notes or other many-hundreds-k of files, as it would burden a lot of intermediate sites in an unacceptable way. for more ideas and options let's have a private discussion. I'm willing to set up a mailing-list forum to promote and support such an effort if interest exists. Cheers, ---Werner (super-rascal) -- --------------------------> please send REPLIES to <------------------------ INTERNET: uhrig@mcc.com (if unavailable: werner@rascal.ics.utexas.edu) UUCP: ...<well-connected-site>!milano!werner ALTERNATIVE: werner@astro.as.utexas.edu OR werner@utastro.UUCP