[comp.dcom.telecom] Isn't That a Hoot!

grandi@noao.edu (Steve Grandi CCS) (08/09/90)

manuel%psi#telenet.astarg%ssl.span@noao.edu may be a hoot; but it can
be a real pain in the rear for those of us in the line of fire!

Here is how it goes ... We at NOAO-Tucson are on the Internet and SPAN
(NASA's Space Physics and Analysis Network, a DECnet).  We pass mail
to SSL on SPAN (Space Sciences Lab at Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville Alabama).  They pass it through commercial X.25 circuits to
certain "astronomically interesting" locations around the world
(including Argentina) through the DECnet PSI service.  And vice-versa.
We got into this game so we could communicate with the Cerro Tololo
Interamerican Observatory in Chile (which is a part of NOAO);
fortunately, NASA has now installed a real satellite link and CTIO is
directly on the Internet.  But we still pass traffic for some other
sites.

I don't think NASA knows that they are paying the X.25 charges for
sending Telecom to Argentina.


Steve Grandi, National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, Arizona USA
Internet: grandi@noao.edu SPAN/HEPNET: NOAO::GRANDI (NOAO=5355) +1 602 325 9228


[Moderator's Note: Well, I won't tell them if you promise not to.
Isn't it amazing how our little journal reaches into all corners of
the world ... to close this issue, Carl Moore shares some recent
correspondence with our new South American reader....  PT]