Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) Newsgroups: net.news Subject: Re: 2 questions and 2 answers about satellite netnews Message-ID: <6665@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Wed, 19-Dec-84 14:28:00 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.6665 Posted: Wed Dec 19 14:28:00 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 20-Dec-84 05:26:49 EST References: <472@vortex.UUCP> Organization: USAMC ALMSA Lines: 49 I think there are still a couple concepts about the satellite-fed netnews project that remain vague in all our minds (at least they are so in mine!); these are: a) As has been asked by other posters, what about the posting of netnews? Will not each site still have to have the same existing telephone line connections simply to OUTPUT their site's generated netnews items? I can see that many micro sites may just operate in a receive-only mode; it would be well worth the costs for any company involved in UNIX software simply to scarf up whatever appears on net.sources and net.unix-wizards, I would think, and the rest is just a side benefit. But any site currently involved in two-way netnews will undoubtedly want to continue to generate inquiries and participate in dialogs; for this, the telephone connections will be necessary. b) If a site still has to have telephone connections, the obvious improvement to look for is to be making SHORTER telephone calls. This is how Lauren has stated the cost of the decoder & etc. will be justified; in the savings off existing phone bills. However, there is a point here that has not been covered -- the stargate-distributed netnews is explicitly NOT complete; the call for "screeners" has been public. Therefore, what comes over stargate will be some percentage of netnews. Will not the rest of netnews continue to be sent via telephone call distribution? And will not each site's software have to compare posting-ID's to eliminate duplicates, just like it now does for telephone-distributed netnews? Therefore, the calls will not have to carry the actual text of the the items previously gleaned off the satellite distribution, but the overhead information of this rejection of duplicates and back-and-forth dialog will remain. As the sheer volume of netnews increases, as it has steadily done, will not the telephone-call expenses return to their present high level (and even exceed that) just from this cause alone? There would be an initial drop in costs, of course, but the costss would then begin to rise after that drop. Or are we assuming that, once the stargate satellite distribution is in place, the only netnews that will get national distribution will be that approved of and passed by the screeners? Anything could get local distribution, but no backbone or major site would promulgate anything not satellite-distributed? (This may be a good thing, so I'm not flaming about it -- I'm just trying to understand the concepts.) I know I'd appreciate it if Lauren would address these specific issues for all of us. Regards, Will Martin USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA