Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!vsi1!daver!mips!sultra!dtynan
From: dtynan@sultra.UUCP (Der Tynan)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: Who guards the distribution
Summary: This shouldn't happen (normally :-)
Message-ID: <2683@sultra.UUCP>
Date: 29 Nov 88 19:43:07 GMT
References: <432@kl-cs.UUCP>
Organization: Tynan Computers, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 41

In article <432@kl-cs.UUCP>, jonathan@cs.keele.ac.uk (Jonathan Knight) writes:
> Hi there.  I would like to know who is supposed to decide
> whether an article gets propagated or not.  Over here in the
> UK I'm getting articles for groups ny.*, seattle.*, wi.*, att.*, 
> 
> What I'd like to know is: is the receiving site supposed to decide
> if the article should be accepted, or should the sending site
> decide whether to transmit it in the first place.  The first
>
>   _____     Jonathan Knight,               | JANET: jonathan@uk.ac.keele.cs

In answer to your first question, it is common for postings to multiple
newsgroups to do this.  For example, for some inane reason, say I post to
ba.wanted, and comp.sources.wanted.  Well, you'll receive (or *should* receive)
the article, even though 'ba.' is in the Newsgroups line.  This is only a
problem if you try to followup the article, as inews will complain about the
strange group.  For some reason, the biggest offenders are 'att.*'.  However,
if you are receiving stuff which is primarily intended for the subnet, and
not cross-posted, you do indeed have a problem.

Your first line of attack should be to look at the Path line, to see who has
been handling the errant article.  I see from your paths that UKC is your
feed.  I could be wrong, but I believe UKC has some sort of charge for this
kind of thing.  At any rate, they are paying *something* for reception of
these bogus groups.  It should really be they who are bothered by this.  Send
them mail (and also to the US site in the Paths field), and ask them what is
going on.

As to your second question, the answer is BOTH.  Basically, the sending site
will only forward those groups which are in the 'sys' file for the remote
(receiving) site.  So, for sites within those metropolitan areas, the US
site will forward news, but *should not* send it to UKC (or any other long-
distance feed).  Also, if the bogus groups don't exist in the 'sys' file
for the receiving site (UKC, I presume), then it should junk them.  Hope
this helps.
						- Der
-- 
	dtynan@zorba.Tynan.COM  (Dermot Tynan @ Tynan Computers)
	{apple,mips,pyramid,uunet}!Tynan.COM!dtynan

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