Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site phri.UUCP
Path: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!sun!idi!pesnta!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: net.news.config
Subject: Re: Abuse of ``DIRECT'' in Usenet maps
Message-ID: <313@phri.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Jul-85 11:43:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: phri.313
Posted: Fri Jul  5 11:43:28 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Jul-85 05:52:17 EDT
References: <1738@amdahl.UUCP>
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 39

gam@amdahl (Gordon A. Moffett) says:
> [...] using the ``DIRECT'' cost value [...] not really DIRECT (or
> DEDICATED) lines, but just ``very good'' DEMAND connections.

	I take this to mean that other people are just as confused as I
am about what the various costs mean.  To quote the pathalias man page:

          DIRECT    200       (local call)
          DEMAND    300       (normal call)
          HOURLY    500       (hourly poll)
          EVENING   1800      (time restricted call)
          DAILY     5000      (daily poll)

	Can somebody who *really* knows what these are supposed to mean
(i.e. one of the implementors) give some examples of situations that
fall into the various catagories.  To make this more concrete, this is
how I came up with my path costs; did I do it right?  Should the allegra
and philabs costs be DEMAND and DEMAND+LOW?  Is a long-distance call
that you are willing to make any time of the day a "normal" call?  Am I
correct in assuming that LOCAL means on an Ethernet or similar LAN and
DEDICATED means an RS-232 hard-wired connection between 2 machines in
the same building (i.e. not a phone call)?

phri	timeinc(DIRECT), cubsvax(DIRECT), allegra(DIRECT+LOW),
	philabs(DIRECT+2*LOW), pesnta(EVENING)

	Timeinc, and cubsvax are in my area code.  Once an hour, if I
have traffic for them, I call them.  In addition, every other hour I
call whether or not I have any traffic for them.  Allegra and philabs
are both (relatively short) toll calls.  I call them both hourly if I
have traffic, once a day in the middle of the night regardless.  The LOW
penalty for allegra indicates the higher-cost phone call.  The double
LOW penalty for philabs is because we seem to have a bit more trouble
with that link than we do with the others.  Pesnta is way the hell in
California.  We will only call them in the middle of the night, and then
only if we have traffic bound for them.
-- 
allegra!phri!roy (Roy Smith)
System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute