🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1990Dec22.233450.7325@Latour.Sandelman.OCUnix.On.Ca> mcr@Latour.Sandelman.OCUnix.On.Ca (Michael Richardson) writes:
>  "If everyone had an MX record" ... Likely there would also be
>municipal 'uunet's that would pop up for those that want to pay for
>reliable mail and news service. (That is the one of the main reason
>I've heard for connecting to uunet. That one and the 'no one else will
>feed my 486 running MS-DOS')

We actually did that here in Minnesota several years ago.  We created 
separate hubs for news and mail so that there would be a backup in 
case of catastrophic crash.  We then set up a hierarchic tiered system
where second teir sites were required to have trailblazers, and were
requred to feed a number of third tier sites.  We set up back up feeds 
along the second tier of sites and an ihave/sendme from a separate
source into one of them.  It worked pretty well for a while.  The
system is still mostly in place, although the adminsitration has
changed hands more than once.

The problem with a setup like this is that you really do need to
change for it if you are going to provide it as a real service.  We
do, for instance, now change for access to the primary e-mail link
locally.  This is accomplished through an annual fee of something
likee $35 of $50 to cover phone line and hardward maintenance costs.

Fortunately, e-mail seems to be fairly low maintenance.  The news
links ahve traditionally been higher maintenance.  Currently the
Minnesota news system does not charge for access, and still operates
much as described above.

I would encourage other regions to set up systems like this one.  It
has eased access into the internet to the point where mn.org has 80
member sites.  When we started, there were only 15 sites in minnesota.
If you need more information, feel free to contact me.

-- 
Shane P. McCarron				Phone: +1 612-224-9239
Project Manager					Internet: ahby@bungia.mn.org