[news.sysadmin] Why am I getting regional news from outside my region?

ehrlich@psuvax1.psu.edu (Dan Ehrlich) (08/07/87)

It would appear that a number of sites do not have there news software
correctly configured and are sending articles outside the local area or
region and these articles are making there way around the net.  Below
is a list of the groups that could not be 'localized' over the last
week by the software here at Penn State.  Some of these are valid news
groups and could not be localized because we missed the newgroup
control message.  These I have no problems with.

*** FLAME ON ***

Is it just me or is anyone else out the concerned about this excess
traffic that is being generated?  Our machine is pushing the limit
right now and it seem s silly to have to even look at articles that are
not even supposed to get here in the first place!  Even the suggestion
of putting !newsgroup in the sys files is not reasonable as one still
has to look at the article to determine it is not to be accepted!!

Here is an example.  I was under the impression that the "att" news
groups are internal to the "att" organization.  But this is appearently
not the case.  Perhaps a change to the news software is needed that
forces the distribution on local groups to be the smallest distribution
possible?  The following was posted to att.sys.pc6300 with a
distribution of usa.  If att.sys.pc630 is really part of the alternate
groups running around then why is it not named alt.att.sys.pc6300?
Maybe the users need to be reminded more strongly about the efects of
using wide area distributions?

>Path: psuvax1!husc6!rutgers!mtune!mtgzy!pmt
>From: pmt@mtgzy.UUCP (p.m.teli)
>Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,att.sys.pc6300
>Subject: MS-DOS (3.2) for PC 6300.
>Keywords: MS-DOS, 3.2, 6300.
>Message-ID: <2738@mtgzy.UUCP>
>Date: 31 Jul 87 19:36:26 GMT
>Distribution: usa
>Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
>Lines: 7
>Xref: psuvax1 comp.sys.att:786 att.sys.pc6300:1

*** FLAME OFF ***

===========================================================================
News groups that could not be 'localized':

att.sys.pc6300 att.sys.unixpc
aus.mac aus.wanted
ba.general ba.news.config ba.singles ba.wanted
ca.general ca.unix ca.wanted
cat.bbs
chi.general chi.wanted
co.general
dc.general
dr.clubs.ski dr.forsale dr.general
eunet.general
fj.lang.misc fj.wanted
ih.general ih.micro ih.wanted
labs.mac
lfl.movies
local.garbage
mh.general
micro.ibm
misc.security
mit.bboard
ne.jobs ne.wanted
net.sources
nj.general nj.wanted
ny.general
ont.sf-lovers
pnw.general
rec.equestrian
sci.philosophy.meta
sdnet.jobs
staff.disk
su.news
triangle.forsale
ucb.general
unix-pc.test

jeff@necntc.NEC.COM (Jeff Janock) (08/07/87)

In article <2821@psuvax1.psu.edu> ehrlich@psuvax1.psu.edu (Dan Ehrlich) writes:
>It would appear that a number of sites do not have there news software
>correctly configured and are sending articles outside the local area or
>region and these articles are making there way around the net.
>
>>Path: psuvax1!husc6!rutgers!mtune!mtgzy!pmt
>>From: pmt@mtgzy.UUCP (p.m.teli)
>>Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,att.sys.pc6300
>>Subject: MS-DOS (3.2) for PC 6300.
>>Keywords: MS-DOS, 3.2, 6300.
>>Message-ID: <2738@mtgzy.UUCP>
>>Date: 31 Jul 87 19:36:26 GMT
>>Distribution: usa
>>Organization: AT&T, Middletown NJ
>>Lines: 7
>>Xref: psuvax1 comp.sys.att:786 att.sys.pc6300:1

The clue is in the header.  This article was cross posted to a newsgroup on
your machine that you should be receiving (probably) - the other newgroup
is just trashed by 2.11, but you are informed of the action.  I do not
feeel this is anything to worry about as you would be getting the article 
anyway with your normal news flow.

If interested, I create the group for grins - mostly, these messages are
ignored....

	-jj
-- 
Jeff Janock - NEC Electronics +1 617 655 8833 jeff@necntc.NEC.COM
{ames, decvax, harvard, linus, mit-eddie}!necntc!jeff

jv@mhres.mh.nl (Johan Vromans) (08/08/87)

In article <2821@psuvax1.psu.edu>, ehrlich@psuvax1.psu.edu (Dan Ehrlich) writes:
> It would appear that a number of sites do not have there news software
> correctly configured and are sending articles outside the local area or
> region and these articles are making there way around the net.
> [ ... and much more ... ]

Another problem in this realm is that the news 'dirtribution' feature is
heardly used in a useful way. Here in the Netherlands we oftten receive
the famous "house for sale in New Jersey" kind of articles. Do the USA
inhabitants ever realize that USA is not WORLD?

[ I mistakenly miswrote 'dirtribution'. I think i'll leave it that way. ]

: johan
-- 
Johan Vromans                           | jv@mh.nl via European backbone
Multihouse N.V., Gouda, the Netherlands | uucp: ..{seismo!}mcvax!mh.nl!jv
"It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness"