[comp.mail.uucp] Why the maps cannot be accurate

lmb@vsi1.UUCP (Larry Blair) (09/29/88)

o Most maps are distributed only once a month.

o There is another delay from when a updated entry is sent to a map
  coordinater until it is posted of up to another month.

These two reasons are sufficient to add up to 2 months delay in posting.
When you add to that situations, like right now, where u.usa.ca.6 has
not been posted since July, you have even more inaccuracies in the maps.
In fact, I've had a number of pieces of mail come through my site looking
for "pdi", with which we haven't had contact in months.  They got there
because someone (hplabs?  It's hard to tell because they sent it sun!vsi1!pdi,
which caused the headers to get clobbered) rerouted what was probably a
reasonable path based on inaccurate data.

This, of course, is only the weaker of the two major reasons not to
reroute.
-- 
Larry Blair   ames!vsi1!lmb   lmb%vsi1@ames.arc.nasa.gov

horton@reed.UUCP (Nike Horton) (09/30/88)

In article <1043@vsi1.UUCP> lmb@vsi1.UUCP (Larry Blair) writes:
>o Most maps are distributed only once a month.
>
>o There is another delay from when a updated entry is sent to a map
>  coordinater until it is posted of up to another month.
>

This certainly was true as recently as a year ago, but things have changed.
I am the pathalias map coordinator for the middle atlantic states, and
we now send out updates as soon as we get them.  They are still funneled
through a central site (Rutgers) but they are sent out as often as there are
changes.  I usually send things new maps for my volatile states (NJ, MD, VA)
twice a week.  I find that there is about a ten day turnaround time from
the update being submitted by the administrator to the map reaching me here
at Reed.  Not perfect, but not bad.  

>
>When you add to that situations, like right now, where u.usa.ca.6 has
>not been posted since July, you have even more inaccuracies in the maps.

I don't know how often this has been updated, but my most recent copy is
dated September 7, 1988.
-- 
Nike Horton       
horton@reed.uucp 	   horton@harvard.harvard.edu

lear@NET.BIO.NET (Eliot Lear) (10/01/88)

I promise you, Larry Blair, that I will be able to deal with propagation
delay and other ovcerhead.
-- 
Eliot Lear
[lear@net.bio.net]