berlin@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP (David K. Fickes) (07/10/87)
As a person who has enjoyed the net for about two years but until
recently has ignored the politics/discussions of the backbone/netgods/
powersincharge/anarchy rules, I'm afraid I have never really been aware
of the entire scope of the network. At this time, I'm about to leave
Boston University and the company I'm working for is interested in
becoming a USENET site (gee, boss... it would be great... please...?? :)
I'm concerned with several points as follows:
(1) How do I go about getting a newsfeed arranged?
(2) What are the restrictions on articles??
(3) What about restrictions on mail?? ( Can we keep in touch with our
local SUN Sales rep through the mail?? )
I have posted articles that have gotten responses through USnail/phone calls
but the persons themselves have specifically avoided Emailing a reply
about the products concerned.
(4) Currently the company is spread out among 4 different sites across
the country. I fully expect to set up a private connection system
for internal mail but someone has brought up the idea of using the
net for such stuff.
(5) What obligations are going to be expected of us once we are
given a newsfeed?
(6) Is there ANY governing body/person who knows whats going on?
Any comments would be appreciated,
thanks, david--
==============================================================================
David K. Fickes Boston University (617) 536-3394
CSNET: berlin@bu-cs 233 Bay State Road
UUCP: ...harvard!bu-cs!berlin Boston, MA 02215
campbell@maynard.BSW.COM (Larry Campbell) (07/11/87)
In article <1036@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP> berlin@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP (David K. Fickes) writes: >(1) How do I go about getting a newsfeed arranged? Just ask a nearby site if you can connect to them and if they can feed you. You can find nearby sites by looking in the map data (comp.mail.maps). >(2) What are the restrictions on articles?? That's a subject on which the debate will never end. Just read the news.* groups for all the debate, but for introductory guidelines, read the postings in news.announce.newusers. >(3) What about restrictions on mail?? ( Can we keep in touch with our > local SUN Sales rep through the mail?? ) > >I have posted articles that have gotten responses through USnail/phone calls >but the persons themselves have specifically avoided Emailing a reply >about the products concerned. Well, this is a grey area; you should be guided by common sense and good taste. Most sites that forward mail do so as a courtesy in the hope that other sites will forward their mail. Don't abuse the courtesy by mailing enormous files around. And be aware that mail that gets forwarded by a number of unknown sites is inherently insecure. Anyone with root privileges at any intervening node can read your mail. So don't go mailing sources to your company's latest hot new product. Assume that your competitors can read anything you mail across the net. >(4) Currently the company is spread out among 4 different sites across > the country. I fully expect to set up a private connection system > for internal mail but someone has brought up the idea of using the > net for such stuff. This is OK only if the volume is very low. It is not OK to use the charity of other sites to avoid paying your company's telecommunications costs. >(5) What obligations are going to be expected of us once we are > given a newsfeed? Just don't EVER let Mark Ethan Smith have an account on your machine! :-) >(6) Is there ANY governing body/person who knows whats going on? Yes. You'll find most of them in the news.* groups. Again, read the news.announce.newusers articles and the news software documentation for starters. I suspect you'll do OK; that you've bothered to ask these questions at all indicates that you have more courtesy and common sense than any five average Usenet posters. -- Larry Campbell The Boston Software Works, Inc. Internet: campbell@BSW.COM 120 Fulton Street, Boston MA 02109 uucp: {husc6,mirror,think}!maynard!campbell +1 617 367 6846
romain@pyrnj.uucp (Romain Kang) (07/13/87)
In article <1036@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP> berlin@bucsb.bu.edu.UUCP (David K. Fickes) writes: >(5) What obligations are going to be expected of us once we are > given a newsfeed? a. Run your node reliably. Several times in the past, there have been very small sites requesting news feeds from my machine. These have tended to be poorly run. It is extremely annoying to have 3 MB of news queued up for sites that never call to pick up their news, or tie up phone lines during the day because they either don't call frequently enough to keep the calls short, or don't pick the stuff up during low demand periods. (It is telling when one turns off such feeds and the downstream people never notice.) Do not use the name of a previously established node. (phoenix.princeton.edu, are you listening? Of course not...) Among other things, this disrupts news propagation in other parts of the net. It is also antisocial to flood the net with junk articles from broken software at your site. To borrow Henry Spencer's pungent phrase, you may piss in your own soup but not mine. (Thanks for fixing your gateway, Dave.) b. Be willing to feed other sites in your area. Every few months, I see a request for a news feed in the greater Trenton, NJ area. Every time, the same pattern repeats itself: The people who respond are already feeding at full capacity (princeton) or intolerably distant for the phone bills (rutgers). (Hey, no one's going to pat *me* on the back for feeding sites down there and blowing away phone money. Sorry, Gary...) Obviously, there is feed capacity somewhere in that area, but someone's not pulling their weight if the same names always come up. Also, I consider it unhealthy when just one site is doing all the work. Just wait and see what happens when seismo drops off the net this fall. Or ask the people in Atlanta how things were when akgua fell off the net. Or even consider the minor netnews disruption that just took place here in central Jersey when rutgers was uncommunicative over the past two days. The Bay Area around San Francisco appears much better prepared for such newsquakes, since some thought and planning has gone into network topology and load balance. If decwrl were to go out, things would still keep moving, if perhaps somewhat impaired. Anyhow, that's my perspective from running a small relay for the past two years. I'm sure the oldtimers have their own ideas of what good site behavior is. A handful of irresponsible or unreliable sites can cause widespread havoc (and multiplied expense), while a few good sites make things easier for the Usenet community at large. -- Romain Kang {allegra,cmcl2,mirror,pyramid,rutgers}!pyrnj!romain Pyramid Technology Corp. / 10 Woodbridge Center Dr. / Woodbridge, NJ 07095 "Eggheads unite! You have nothing to lose but your yolks!" -Adlai Stevenson