On  Sat, 16  Nov 1996  15:07:18 -0500  Mike Holloway  <[log in to unmask]>
said:
 
>I've  received  confirmation  that  addresses  from  MSN,  AOL,  Netcom,
>Pipeline, and others are not receiving posts,
 
Now that we have  a list of domains exhibiting the  problem, we can start
actually looking  into it.  First off,  none of  the domains  in question
participate in the DISTRIBUTE backbone. They  are handled in the same way
as totally.unknown.domain.com. For most  servers, this means the messages
are delivered  through the local  mail server. Many BITNET  sites however
use the INTERBIT service, which allows them to offload all this mail onto
another machine  and not have  to worry about the  (significant) resource
usage cost of the IBM SMTP implementation. WUVMD is one of these sites.
 
Nowadays INTERBIT  is run at  L-Soft (PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM). This  is why
your mail comes via LSOFT.COM. A site that uses INTERBIT incorporates the
recipients  into the  regular DISTRIBUTE  flow, aiming  them at  L-Soft's
server. The  path between WUVMD  and that server  is WUVMD ->  MIZZOU1 ->
UICBIT2 ->  UGA -> PSUVM ->  L-Soft. The BITNET link  between UICBIT2 and
UGA is currently  down with 744 files queued. Your  messages are probably
part of that queue.
 
To sum up:
 
- WUVMD is offloading its deliveries to another system to save resources.
  This is why the mail is not delivered directly to AOL, Netcom, etc.
 
- Historically, the twin P/370 core systems  at UIC have been the slowest
  two nodes in the core. Backlogs  were frequent and did not always clear
  before the  weekend. I am  not surprised  that you have  had turnaround
  problems. This is a moot point now since UIC is leaving BITNET.
 
- For whatever reason, there now appears  to be a problem between UICBIT2
  and UGA, and there is a good chance that your files are there.
 
There are several possible solutions to your problem:
 
- WUVMD could deliver  its own mail locally, instead of  forwarding it to
  L-Soft for free delivery.
 
- WUVMD  could relocate  its BITNET  link so  that it  is not  behind the
  UICBIT systems.  Since they are going  away soon, this will  have to be
  done anyway.
 
- WUVMD could switch to the TCP/IP version of LISTSERV so that it doesn't
  need to depend on the UICBIT systems.
 
The DISTRIBUTE  backbone is built around  a core of fast,  reliable sites
(NOT the same  sites as the BITNET core). BITNET  servers reach this core
through  BITNET, and  if the  connection  is unreliable,  the service  is
unreliable.  In general  a satellite  DISTRIBUTE  site that  has poor  or
unreliable  connectivity  to  the  core  of  the  backbone  is  going  to
experience poor  performance. Solution  1 is to  stop using  INTERBIT and
DISTRIBUTE and deliver everything locally (which costs money), solution 2
is to fix the connection.
 
  Eric