Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84 chuqui version 1.7 9/23/84; site nsc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!nsc!chuqui
From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuqui Q. Koala)
Newsgroups: net.news.adm
Subject: admins-- please READ!
Message-ID: <2107@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23-Dec-84 03:48:07 EST
Article-I.D.: nsc.2107
Posted: Sun Dec 23 03:48:07 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Dec-84 03:07:02 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Callahans
Lines: 70


Usenet administrators: This message is to inform you that your sys file
is probably wrong. While poring through the returns of the sendsys
control message I sent out a few weeks ago, I've found many re-occuring
problems with sys files all over the network.  We've been having
trouble with "black holes" in the network where messages simply seem to
disappear without a trace. Most, if not all, of these can be tracked
down to problems in the news sys files of sites upstream of the holes.

The biggest problem I've seen is missing distributions. Every site in the
U.S. should have the following distributions for their site and any site
they feed news to:

    ME:net,fa,mod,usa,na,to::
    THEM:net,fa,mod,usa,na,to::

Many sites are missing both the "usa" distribution and the "mod"
distribution, crippling the ability of everyone to use these. 

A related problem is with sites that are passing specific topics to
some other place. This example is WRONG and will not properly forward
all messages:

    ME:net,fa,mod,usa,na,to::
    THEM:net.unix-wizards::

The reason this is wrong is that 2.10.2 now requires the "Distribution:"
line in headers of messages being posted. If you send out a message with
the headers:

    Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
    Distribution: net

your sys file with match the "Newsgroups:" line but it will NOT match
the line for the "Distribution:". Because of this, large numbers of
articles are not being sent when (or where) they should be. The correct
way of handling this in the sys file is:

    ME:net,fa,mod,usa,na,to::
    THEM:net,net.unix-wizards::

Please, PLEASE update your sys file! If your sys file is incorrect you are
not seeing all the articles you should be, and neither are any of the sites
you feed news to. This is especially critical if you are feeding news to
others -- you have taken on the responsibility of getting them
information and you may not be. There is nothing they can do to fix this -- the
responsibility is yours. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to work
on your sys file -- do it! There are areas of the net that are having
significant problems, especially with mod, usa, and na distributions, and
they can be tracked down to some sites that have let their sys files get
out of date. If you have any questions, please contact me at ..!nsc!chuqui
and I'll help you fix your file. It is VERY important to everyone on the
net that all of the information gets to every person possible. Don't be the
site that keeps that critical piece of knowledge from the person that needs
it -- fix your sys file.

In a few weeks I'll be sending out another sendsys message. I plan on
contacting sites that are still errant personally at that time. Depending
on the problems I see I may also post a list of the errant sites so that 
administrators being fed by them will at least know they aren't getting
everything. I don't want your site on that list -- I hope you don't, either.

chuq

-- 
From behind the bar:		Chuq Von Rospach
{allegra,cbosgd,decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui  nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

Deadbone erotica is the prickly panic of forgotten milleniums, it is the moldy 
billion year madness that creeps deep along the spinal behind of my mind.