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Path: utzoo!linus!husc6!hao!woods
From: woods@hao.UUCP
Newsgroups: news.config
Subject: Re: it's a long long way to New Jersey
Message-ID: <794@hao.UCAR.EDU>
Date: Thu, 23-Jul-87 12:35:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: hao.794
Posted: Thu Jul 23 12:35:13 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Jul-87 09:20:37 EDT
References: <410@pluto.UUCP>
Reply-To: woods@hao.UUCP (Greg Woods)
Distribution: usa
Organization: High Altitude Obs./NCAR, Boulder CO
Lines: 22

>pluto!bc-cis!phri!cmcl2!husc6!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!homxb!mtuxo
>NY    NY     NY   NY    MA    CO  IL     IL       IL    NJ    NJ

>It seems odd that the message goes thru Massachusetts, Colorado, and
>Illinois when last time I went to New Jersey, it was just across the
>Hudson.

  The problem is security paranoia within AT&T. There is an AT&T facility
(all the dr* sites) about 20 miles from here, but we have to send mail
to Chicago to get to them, because they will not set up any links to non-AT&T
sites. I suspect your site in NJ has the same restriction. The path 
from MA to CO to IL is all over Internet links and hence is a "free" cost
path and is therefore preferred by the routing software. Apparently there
are large parts of AT&T that can ONLY be reached through ihnp4, so it
often doesn't matter where the site is physically located; to get mail
to them, you have to find the "cheapest" path to Chicago.

--Greg
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