cslewis@lily.waterloo.edu (Cary Lewis) (04/10/89)
Hello, I am fourth year computer science major at the University of Waterloo, and will be graduating this May. I am going to try and convince my new employer to become a network node so that we can send e-mail and read the news. I was wondering what steps are required to do this? If I could get some detailed information it would make the job of getting my boss to say okay. So what are the costs involved, what kind of hardware is required (we have a AT & T 3b2 running Unix, and a 1200 baud at the office). As well, if I can't get my employer to agree to all of this, is there any way that I can access news from a PC at home. I.e. are there any BBS that have access to the news, if so what are there phone numbers. Thanks in advance for your help. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Cary Lewis - "You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish" -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (04/10/89)
In article <9140@watcgl.waterloo.edu> cslewis@lily.waterloo.edu (Cary Lewis) writes: >... I am going to try and convince my >new employer to become a network node so that we can send e-mail and read >the news. I was wondering what steps are required to do this? If I could >get some detailed information it would make the job of getting my boss to say >okay. So what are the costs involved, what kind of hardware is required >(we have a AT & T 3b2 running Unix, and a 1200 baud at the office). I thought of mailing the following, but decided that it's probably worth posting for the sake of others who might be interested. --------------- There are two networks involved here: UUCPnet and Usenet. They are often informally lumped under the name "Usenet", and they do overlap extensively, but they really are slightly different. UUCPnet transfers mail, person to person. Usenet transfers news, a distributed bulletin-board system in which one person can "post an article" which is then seen by many people. In practice, joining UUCPnet is normally the first step towards joining Usenet. Neither network has any formal central organization; they are semi-anarchical coalitions of users. To join UUCPnet, you need three things: 1. A fully-configured copy of the UUCP software. This normally comes with most versions of Unix. It is difficult to give much advice on how to configure it, because there are several different major versions and there is much variation in detailed procedures. One configuration step about which something can be said is picking a site name. UUCPnet designates machines by name, where a name is 1-8 characters, lowercase letters and digits only. It is best if your system's name is unique in the first six characters, since there are some stupid versions of UUCP that only pay attention to the first six. Best is to pick a name starting with an abbreviation of the name of your organization and concluding with some indication of the nature of the specific system. For example, "utzoo" is University of Toronto's Zoology department system. Avoid site names that include indications of particular types of machines, i.e. "utvax" -- they are uninformative and often need to be changed. Changing site names is painful. Avoid "cute" names, like naming your machines after stars or mythological persons or musical tempos -- somebody, somewhere in a network of over 10000 machines, surely has beaten you to it. (Duplicate names are not a fatal disaster but can cause much aggravation.) At the very least, exercise your cleverness only after an abbreviated-organization prefix -- calling a U of T machine "utzeus" is not a problem, but calling one "zeus" would be a serious mistake. Boring, mundane site names are much less troublesome than cute, clever ones. (Also, avoid visual ambiguity -- a site named "ut1" would have its name constantly mistyped as "utl" -- calling it "utone" or "ut01" would be much smarter.) 2. A way of connecting to some other system. Usually this means an autodialing modem. At least 1200 baud is preferable; 2400 is better. Higher speeds than that are useful but you must consider how many of the people you want to talk to will also be equipped for them. One particular high-speed modem technology, Telebit's "PEP" scheme (notably embodied in their Trailblazer series of modems), is rapidly becoming a de-facto standard for UUCPnet and Usenet, but it may not have reached your area yet. It is possible to have another site "poll" yours regularly if you have modems but no dialout capability, but this does cause some headaches. The ideal situation is to have both dialin and dialout capability so you can call other sites and they can call you. The UUCP software can be configured to restrict calling hours, if it is thought desirable to reserve phone lines for other uses at times. 3. A system already on UUCPnet that is willing to connect to you and relay mail for you. UUCPnet connections seldom put heavy demands on systems' resources, so most sites are relatively willing to provide UUCPnet connections. There are exceptions, such as sites which are already in heavy use as relay points and which don't want more connections. For example, utzoo is, for historical reasons, a major hub of Toronto-area traffic, and is not taking more connections except in special cases. Such a site can usually refer you to less-busy sites nearby. To join Usenet, you need a functioning UUCPnet connection, plus four more things: 1. Good, solid, high-speed communications. 1200 baud is only marginally adequate; 2400 or PEP is better. Autodialing is usually a necessity. 2. Ample resources. Usenet news is VERY voluminous, often running two megabytes a *day*. To store even a week's news (a reasonably typical choice), you will need a fair bit of disk space. Processing incoming news can be a noticeable load, too. 3. A copy of one of the several versions of the news software. This can usually be obtained from one of the neighboring sites. 4. A site that is willing to feed you the news. Because of the volume, this is a significant commitment, and you may have to hunt around for a site that will do it. (Utzoo, for example, is not supplying news feeds at this time.) There is generally no charge for UUCPnet; systems relay each others' traffic by mutual agreement. The greater volume of Usenet tends to make greater demands on sites' generosity, and often makes some sort of financial contribution desirable. For example, for some years news was brought into the Toronto area by long-distance phone, and there was a cost-sharing agreement among local sites to help with the phone bill. --------------- -- Welcome to Mars! Your | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology passport and visa, comrade? | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
cslewis@lily.waterloo.edu (Cary Lewis) (04/11/89)
I just wanted to thank Henry Spencer, and this newsgroup in general for the information. This has got to be one of the best uses for computers; the unlimited exchange of information for the betterment of computer users everywhere. How hokey, I know, but thanks again. Cary Lewis
root@helios.toronto.edu (Operator) (04/14/89)
In article <1989Apr10.163124.516@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: >2. Ample resources. Usenet news is VERY voluminous, often running two > megabytes a *day*. To store even a week's news (a reasonably typical > choice), you will need a fair bit of disk space. Processing incoming > news can be a noticeable load, too. A full feed (i.e. all ~500 newsgroups) is currently running much higher than this. The only groups we keep for longer than a week are very low-volume (the ut groups and news.announce.newusers). Everything else is kept for 7 days, and /usr/spool/news has over 45MB used at the moment. This translates into something over 5 MB/day (divide this by 2400 baud and you'll see why a fast modem is needed). You can, of course, opt for only a partial feed (although the commonest groups, being the most popular, are generally the largest in volume), and you can determine yourself how long you wish to keep old articles. Before we got a new disk in January and set up a large partition just for news, we kept things for only 2 days, and it ran anywhere from 7-10MB. Keep in mind, also, that you may need extra space to accommodate new, incoming articles prior to expiring old ones, depending how you arrange the timing. The USEnet news, of course, is optional. You don't need it to communicate with other sites on UUCP (or even other networks once you know the gateways). But it is very nice to have. The technical groups are *extremely* helpful. Enjoy! -- Ruth Milner UUCP - {uunet,pyramid}!utai!helios.physics!sysruth Systems Manager BITNET - sysruth@utorphys U. of Toronto INTERNET - sysruth@helios.physics.utoronto.ca Physics/Astronomy/CITA Computing Consortium