From owner-freebsd-isp Fri Apr 18 09:42:24 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA16332 for isp-outgoing; Fri, 18 Apr 1997 09:42:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sys3.cambridge.uk.psi.net (sys3.cambridge.uk.psi.net [154.32.106.10]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA16321 for ; Fri, 18 Apr 1997 09:42:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sys4.cambridge.uk.psi.net (uucp1.mail.uk.psi.net [154.32.105.26]) by sys3.cambridge.uk.psi.net (8.8.4/) with ESMTP id RAA04633; Fri, 18 Apr 1997 17:42:11 +0100 (BST) Received: by sys4.cambridge.uk.psi.net (8.7.5/SMI-5.5-UKPSINet) id RAA00754; Fri, 18 Apr 1997 17:25:59 +0100 (BST) Received: from infodev.nadt.org.uk (infodev.nadt.org.uk [194.155.224.205]) by charlie.nadt.org.uk (8.8.5/8.6.12) with SMTP id PAA15724; Fri, 18 Apr 1997 15:29:48 +0100 (BST) Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19970418141941.006dbfd8@wrcmail> X-Sender: robmel@wrcmail X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 1.5.4 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 15:19:41 +0100 To: "Graydon Hoare ()" , freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG From: Robin Melville Subject: Re: News... Sender: owner-isp@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Dropping news once it has arrived seems to me to beg the question. If you check the proportion of news that you stash that is actually accessed by users it turns out to be a small proportion of the total (unless you're a ISP). The rest has occupied great hunks of bandwidth to arrive at your system, and everybody else's, and is then thrown away at the end of the expiry cycle. Since news is now such a grotesquely inefficient bandwidth gobbler, it's surely time to reevaluate the whole system. I suppose two possibilities come to mind... 1) I like the idea of the Pagesat satellite news feed system in that it is effectively multicast and removes the multiple transmission of the same stuff around the Net; 2) a smaller number of passive news repositories responding to local ISP cacheing news server requests -- only the news that's required gets d/l. Just my two-pennyworth :) -------------------------------------------------------- Robin Melville, Addiction & Forensic Information Service Nottingham Alcohol & Drug Team (Extn. 49178) Vox: +44 (0)115 952 9478 Fax: +44 (0)115 952 9421 Email: robmel@nadt.org.uk WWW: http://www.innotts.co.uk/nadt/ ---------------------------------------------------------