DAN@TOWSONVX.BITNET (01/17/90)
I am not going to add my voice to the BITNIC bashing just yet since I have only recently expressed my problems to them (this morning, in fact). I'll wait a couple of days 8}. In the meantime, I'll try to make some helpful statements. Karen Rabideau writes: > The is the second time that I have been the recipient of the >new NETSERV-style routing tables. This is the second time that they >need correcting. If BITNIC is planning on dropping the older service >from UCLA after this set of updates than I MUST STRONGLY EXPRESS MY >DISSATISFACTION with this arrangement. > Our site has two registered nodes. Last month I only received >one set of routing tables. The information in those tables expressed a >view of the topology as of TWO YEARS AGO!!! The other set of tables >were never created nor sent. > After tracking down some people (NOT from BITNIC) who thought >they could help, we tried to fix the problems.... and I sat back to >wait and see what would happen next. > This month I once again received only one table instead of two. >The routing tables received via NETSERV are better; but still not correct. >The remaining problems are as follows: >. >. >. I haven't noticed any problems with the NETSERV tables I've received. But then, I haven't looked closely nor have I received any complaints. The purpose of these tables is to try and reduce the burden of one or two volunteers who are putting out the routing tables. I commend BITNIC for that because generating routing tables for 3,000 systems must be an enormous task. We should supportive of this attempt. If there are errors for the first couple of months, notify the BITNIC so that they can be corrected. >Unforturnately, I will not be the TECH-REP for my site for very much longer. I >will be moving to another city and leaving my current job. The people who will >be filling in after I have left CANNOT afford to lean on the information coming >to them from the net. If they use that information on blind faith, the link >will go down and not come back up. I don't know about your particular situation so I can't really make any comments about that. In my own case, I also like to think that I am indispensible 8}. However, I know that if/when I leave Towson, BITNET support may slow down for a while but, sooner or later, someone will learn what needs to be done (whether it is my boss, one of my peers, or my replacement). Our President and our Provost will make sure of that. >Some additional commentary. >. >. >. >2. Domain names. We have been trying to become registered as a domain > name for e-mail since June as well. I have finally found out about the > non-BITNIC person to whom we are supposed to refer these matters. It only took us about 4-6 weeks to define our domain on both BITNET and the Internet. >3. Routing tables. PLEASE CONTINUE THE UPDATES FROM UCLA!! Until I get at > least one month of correctly sent information I am not willing to forgo > getting a correct set of tables. Agreed. >4. Aid and assistance. Written documentation is poorly lacking. As a VMS > site it is difficult to obtain a grasp of IBM-style networks. It is not > as if we can walk down the hall and look at a JES2 or RSCS manual or a > VM command guide. And as a university and non-profit insitution we are > not always in the position of getting funding for such 'frivolous' > items. If you're going to write user documentation (for management or > general users) BITNIC, please consider your audience. We aren't stupid, > just un-informed. You're right. The documentation from BITNIC is slim and IBM-oriented. However, documentation exists for VMS sites. There are several users guides available on the net. VMSSERV@TOWSON2, VMSSERV@UBVMSC, and LISTSERV@BITNIC are three places to look. >Our site is actively working to aquire a connection to NEARnet (our local >INTERNET). Once this happens, I am going to have a tough time convincing >people that keeping our BITNET connection will be worth much. A tcp/ip >connection is going to get us better mail service, greater accesability to >other sites for file transfers, and a remote login capability that simply >does not exist on BITNIC. Having already dealt with SRI-NIC in other jobs >and in preparation for joining the internet, I can say that I am getting >NO support out of BITNIC by comparison. Why is that so?? There are benefits inherent to BITNET but I am not going to go into them now. That's for another time. Suffice it to say that Towson is a member of both BITNET and SURAnet and, if that changes at all, it will be to add another network connection, not remove one. Regards. Dan Daniel A. Dinkin Network Services Manager BITNET: dan@towsonvx.bitnet Academic Computing Service Internet: dan@toe.towson.edu Towson State University dan@midget.towson.edu Towson, Maryland 21204 MINCnet: toe::e7opdan (301)830-3320 Any thoughts in this message are purely random and my employer had nothing to do with them... especially if I was right.