From: Mark.Purcell@pos.pub.uu.oz.au (Mark Purcell)
Newsgroups: aus.mail
Subject: Re: priv.au namespace (Home user perspective)
Date: 5 Sep 92 08:23:08 GMT
Organization: Me?  Organized?

sysnet@cc.newcastle.edu.au (David Morrison @ University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA) once wrote....
>
>I have to wonder what it is that the small sites actually value from an AARNet 
>connection?  Is it mail access?  Is it news?  Would they want a connection if 
>they could send and receive mail but not get news?  How much would they be 
>prepared to pay for a mail-only connection?

I guess as one of these small sites I am qualified to answer this question,
if not only from my own perspective.

I run uucp connections with my home PC, supporting a single user for a number
of reasons.

Normally I would just get a user account on any one of a number of public
access sites around the country.  I would do this to read news and mail also
to gain access to the software archives as I don't have access to 
the net at work or at any university courses I am doing.

There is a big problem with public access dialup accounts in that they
usually charge by the hour, one can not always get on when they want to
as modems are tied up and reading news at 1200/2400 baud is a pain. In addition
I don't get to keep, on my machine, copies of mail I have sent/received 
and printing anything is a problem.

So my solution to all the above is to run a uucp connection which will fetch
and send my mail and news when I'm not around.  So when I want to read/send
news/mail I can and my site will spool it and send it later.  By
having my machine perform more than termial emulation means that
I get better use out of the net, using resourses I already have.

That is basically my desire in having a home system, so that I can access
the net in the way I want when I want.

In that regard it is proably equilavent to a user account on a public
access machine.  Which tend to go for about $50/ six months or $1/hr in the
Sydney area.

When you consider that news can be compressed, I end up spending less time
logged into my upstream host downloading a compressed feed, I only get about 40
groups, than I would if I were logged into an account.  Also I can tell
my system to poll my upstream site at 0430 each day when no one else is
logged in. So my upstream site can support more single user uucp
accounts than user accounts which must make sense to them as they can support 
a larger client base and thus get more return for the same resourses.

To answer the question.  If one charged a lot more for a uucp connection
than the current rate for a dialup access account then the users will go
for dialup accounts.  As I consider the two roughly equilivalent.

But then there is the problem of obtaining a FQDN for your home machine.
I could get this site here registered, illegaly of course, in one of
the US domains, .com, .org..., for less than $50.  With their US MX
pointing at this site in Australia.  But then you have to use AARNet to get
your mail transferred, which is why it is illegal.  But to get this site
registered in Australia has taken me about 15 months and even now I have to
call STD to Melbourne to collect my MX delievered mail.  Not ideal :-(.
But that would be another five pages to this article.

Mark
----
Mark Purcell, 62/25 Market Street, SYDNEY NSW 2000.  (02) 283 5598
	Mark.Purcell@pos.pub.uu.oz.au, msp@kralizec.zeta.org.au