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