KRISTOFFERSON@BIONET-20.ARPA (01/17/88)
From: David Kristofferson <Kristofferson@BIONET-20.ARPA> I was very pleased to see the announcement of the EMBL server but then rather chagrined when it turned out not to work for us. To translate the previous message from David Hazeldine into simpler terms, this means that unfortunately BIONET users can not access this server at present. Either the server must be modified to accept mail from the ARPANET which BIONET is on or we must wait until BIONET gets a connection directly to BITNET. Currently all of our mail goes from the ARPANET through a "gateway" to reach BITNET. It is doubly unfortunate since the network facilities on BITNET have some important technical limitations compared to the ARPANET and users should not come to the conclusion that BITNET is somehow the "wave of the future." BITNET was installed some time back by IBM as part of its efforts to assist the academic community and also establish a market for its mainframe computers. BITNET mail routing paths can be unreliable at times because redundant paths are not always available, i.e., if one computer in the link goes down a traffic jam develops until it comes back up. Thus mail flow comes to a halt. The ARPANET on the other hand has alternate routes for getting around problem spots. The BITNET network is also incompatible with the "TCP/IP" (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) standard and is in the process of being upgraded to become compatible with the other networks based on this standard. Many of these reasons may not seem immediately relevant to someone who wants to get sequence data from EMBL but they are of tremendous importance in developing future high speed network links to tie together the variety of emerging computing resources which will be available to researchers via these networks. I hope that EMBL will be able to modify its server soon because until then the service is inaccessible to probably the largest group of molecular biology researchers on any network. In any event we are planning to obtain direct BITNET access for BIONET sometime soon to circumvent problems like this. Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson BIONET Resource Manager kristofferson@bionet-20.arpa -------
KRISTOFFERSON@BIONET-20.ARPA (06/01/88)
From: David Kristofferson <Kristofferson@BIONET-20.ARPA> Graham, David, and Patricia, I just read that your database server will be accessible to ARPANET hosts as of tomorrow, June 1st. We would appreciate it if you would post instructions on the EMBL-DATABANK bboard detailing how BIONET and other users can send mail to it. Thanks! Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson BIONET Resource Manager kristofferson@bionet-20.arpa -------