From: eric@egsner.cirr.com (Eric Schnoebelen)
Subject: Re: sendsys for dfw distribution on Dec 29.
Organization: Central Iowa (Model) Railroad, Dallas, Tx.
Distribution: dfw
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 22:19:33 GMT
Followup-To: dfw.news
Keywords: sendsys dfw

In article <C03tHt.838@feenix.metronet.com>
		 wjm@feenix.metronet.com (Bill Middleton) writes:
- In article <Bzzxx1.Euq@egsner.cirr.com>
-			 eric@cirr.com (Eric Schnoebelen) writes:
- >I have just sent out a sent out a sendsys message with the distribution
- >of "dfw", in an effort to map news connectivity in the Dallas/Ft Worth,
- >USA area.
- 
-   The data you gather could be valuable.  Not in terms of profit, but for 
- the improvement of connectivity locally.  I'm all for that.  As the news 
- dude here, i've been pondering what could actually be done to improve it.  

        One of the primary reasons for the sendsys is so I, as the
regional news co-ordinator, can map connectivity within the region, and
sugguest additional or improved links.

        The results also allow me to suggest possible connections for
new sites in the area, when those requests arrive in my mail box.

        As news "dude" at metronet, you probably need to be on two
mailing lists for the region.  One is dfw-newsmngr@cirr.com, which is a
mailing list that is supposably subscribed to by all the area news
administrators, and the other is dfw-nntpmanagers@convex.com, which is
subscribed to by a number of the administrators of are NNTP sites.
(this is the first public announcement of either list, although both
have been in existance for about a year.) [we would like to keep the
subscription list down to USENET admins, but if you administer a USENET
system, or an NNTP system, send mail to <list>-request at the respective
hosts.]

- Certainly, there seem to be some little glitches here and there, especially 
- between what is seen in Dallas, and what is seen in Arlington/Ft. Worth 

        Actually, the links between Dallas and Ft Worth are better than
they were just two years ago..  And plans have been afoot to improve
them further..  [Right Jim?]

-   But, i haven't been around long enough to be a critic.  Would just like
- to offer a little commentary, and a proposal, to get some feedback.  Now,
- there's alot of good folks out there, been doin' this community a good
- service, for a long time.  Since killer's demise, (i was only told the story)
- the general "administrative leaning" insofar as i can glean it, has been 
- toward duplicity, for the sake of assuring deliveries in the event of another
- loss.  Certainly this is wise, but perhaps, now, not quite so imperative.

        Actually, since killers going down (three times), and texbell's
going private, most of the "major" players in town have wanted multiple
redundant feeds, in some fashion or another.  There is work going on to
make delayed ihave/sendme available in the performance release of C
news, which will all better redundant feeds within the region, since the
feeds will no longer have to be total duplicates.

-   The uucp net and eventually the radio tcp crowd, will, i think, be the
- backbone of connectivity for local machines.  However, as some of you may
- already know, other avenues are opening.. There are a number of inet machines
- now coming into the market, with various forms of connectivity, from t1 to t3.
- They offer all kinds of fancy services, at some pretty high prices.  

        Actually, the radio TCP crowd will not be able to provide any
form of backbone, unless everyone wants to personally approve every
piece of news and mail to transit that backbone.  I'll let the Ham's in
dfw fill you in further on that one..

        It is true that there are already a number of internet service
providers looking to open points of presense in the area, and other
already have.  They do provide a wide range of products on a reasonable
range of prices.

- Well, thats what we are, Texas Metronet, at your service.  And, i assure you
- that as you are committed to DFW, so are we.  I am not exactly sure yet how
- we can best serve the community, but it is what we WANT to do.  Of course
- our main devotions will be paid to our users, as any other business pays 
- primary attention to its customers.  But i know that we can help.  In par-
- ticular, we are thinking of the following general service offering.
- 
-   1. "optimized batch news feed" - from the data, possibly.  To include the
-       most popular and important groups in the dfw area.  Feasability? 

        I don't believe that is possible..  Some sites will want
everything, and I do mean everything, while others will want just a few
groups.  The existing news mechanisms already handle this..

-   2.  Mail service -    1-hop path to inet under our domain. 
-       Via batched smtp if possible.

        Are you folks really up to this?  There is more to doing mail
service than you might imagine, even with a domain park..  What about
those sites that don't want to be in your domain park?  And Texas
already has a locally administered domain park in the form of
.lonestar.org.  You might want to talk to Doug Davis about how much
effort is involved in running a domain park.


-- 
Eric Schnoebelen		eric@cirr.com		schnoebe@convex.com
	"Ford, If I were to ask where in the hell we are, would I
		 regret it?" -- Arther Dent, HHGG
Newsgroups: dfw.news,news.admin.policy