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Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 01:22:48 -0700 From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net> Subject: Re: List Subscriptions / Re: Prior Restraint on Publishers

I've been sending nearly all of my posts to either the algebra.com or the cyberpass.net addresses, and the toad.com address is set to expire, or so John told us when he gave us a deadline for finding another site. I've mentioned this a couple of times, and yet some of you seem to think the toad.com address is the preferred, fastest one.

Would some of the operators of the distributed lists comment on the time delays, on the topology of the interlinked distributed list, and on what role, if any, toad.com continues to play in the process? Igor, Lance, Jim, John?

Not shure exactly how to answer this as I don't really measure it but I will pass along my experience and describe the network on this end... einstein.ssz.com is a 486DX2 80 linked via ISDN to a FDDI/T3/T1 backed up'ed link to the major SprintNet and MCI backbone here in Austin, Tx. Our typical physical latency is about 30mS taken from the average of a continous ping that I use as a baseline. When Majordomo receives a submission it then immediately resends it. Assuming the pipe ain't clogged and I run about 15% use with an all time max of about 90%. Usualy, taken from listening to the hard drive chatter, the resend latency is about 30s to 5m when the pipe gets heavily used. Typical peak usage is very sporadic and never lasts more than 5 minutes or so. There are two other small networks dialed in 28.8 that are the major driver of the intermittent loads. One is a commercial video business and the other is a local Amiga/NT/Mac/Linux BBS (Phantoms Mansion, oldest surviving bbs in Austin, in existance since '82. I started in '83). Our current expansion plans are to take the main pipe to a T1 sometime toward the end of next month. We will then upgrade the dial-ins to ISDN and adding a intermittent ISDN dial-in along with 2 28.8 dial-ins. The two dedicated dial-ins will also be expanding to ISDN and I am adding another dedicated ISDN customer network as well. SSZ has been on ISDN since Oct. of '92 and in that time we have been down for more than hours on two occassions. The first was on Mar. 20, 1995 when one of my lodgers managed to burn the house down. The second was around last New Year when I moved and SWBT couldn't move the ISDN for 21 days. We used a 28.8 during that time and physical latency was about 150mS or so. The current move scheduled for about 3 weeks away is expected to be accomplished in less than an hour so hopefuly nobody will even notice... I currently only echo messages to algebra.com because their the only ones who've asked. We currently are subscribed to toad.com and algebra.com. We have an open subscription policy meaning all it takes is an inquiry... Currently the only reason there would be a significant delay is that we on occassion have majordomo barf on itself and erase the subscribers list. But we have a backup and it only takes a cp to get it back up, this process is not automated - hence the delay. Considering the old versions of Linux and Majordomo (nearly 4 years old) this is remarkable to me since it is the only major glitch in the software. We are expecting to upgrade einstein to a Pentium box with much newer software during next month as well. Our policy on submissions to the list is one of complete hands-off except for checking for duplicates and loops. Other boxes that are intermittently available through SSZ and drive our load are: newton.ssz.com Pentium running Linux and is the router for our Elgin, Tx. expansion site expected to come online before the new year permanently. hawking.ssz.com Being built for the Lockheart, Tx. expansion slated for next summer. godzilla.ssz.com Sun Sparc ELC running Solaris 2.5 intended as a IRC server and should be permanently online toward the end of next month. kingkong.ssz.com Tadpole 3XP laptop running Solaris 2.5 and is a personal workstation. smoke.ssz.com Amiga Video Toaster used as a personal graphics workstation, it also intermittently feeds real-time video. Named after 'Smoke Jaguar' the last great Aztec king before the Spaniards arrived. dustworks.ssz.com 486DX3 100 running Win95 used as a personal workstation. tesla.ssz.com Pentium II running Win95 used as a personal workstation. escher.ssz.com Pentium running Linux used to grab resume's off the web via spiders. Once a day but when it runs its load is about 80% and lasts for around 5 minutes with several minutes between bursts (intentional behaviour) and lasts for about an hour, scheduled for early AM. cthulhu.ssz.com Intended to support a data haven project being developed by the owner of the dh-l data haven mailing list. There you go, hope it helps better understand the SSZ site at least. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Participation requires more than just bitching! | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage@ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|