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By popular demand:

--

	Frequently asked question about the 
	  Ottawa Carleton Unix Domain Park
		(ocunix.on.ca)

	$Id: FAQ,v 1.2 92/11/12 17:28:29 mcr Exp Locker: mcr $

  Questions answered here:

    1) What is Ocunix?
    2) What do I need to connect?
    3) How do I connect?  
    4) I'm part of ocunix already, where do I refer new people?
    5) What does Michael Richardson do?
    6) I'm confused now. All you've said is what ocunix isn't. What
    7) What does it cost?
    8) Mailing lists and newsgroups?

Subject: What is Ocunix?

  Ocunix is an group of Unix enthusiasts who have machines, often in
their basements, so if you are one then this is the place for you. Sure,
there are a number of sites who really are small companies, but some of
those small companies' Unix community isn't much bigger than an
individual. Our machines dial each other and exchange mail, and in
many cases news (but that is up tp the admins at each end). 
  We are a microcosm of the much larger ``UUCP Zone''. The rest of the
world thinks we are one machine instead of 30 some machines. 

  Ocunix is a co-op, and not a service provider. No one person is ocunix.
I hope that when I skip town in two years or so that it will continue
without a hic-up. Please don't expect any ``service'' in the
customer-seller kind of sense. 

  In particular, as postmaster I have nothing to do with who connects
where, or how much news they get. I think my machine is already
sufficiently critical as it is, particularly given the flaky state of
my modem.  

Subject: What do I need to connect?

  Something that runs UUCP and a modem and some experience with
telecommunications, Unix. Most Unixes and Unix-look-alikes can UUCP.

  There are also several people running several different flavours of
UUCP under AmigaDOS and also people running UUCP under DOS.

Subject: How do I connect? 

  I will happily accept new map entries: by email, from the
administrator of the new site from their site. That means it is still
up to you to find someone who has a no-incremental-cost route to
one of the people in group. 

  If you are having a problem setting up UUCP, and need some help,
sure ---  contact me, but I'm not here for handholding. I get paid to
do that at work (and enjoy it sometimes). There are several people in
Ottawa who will enthusiastically (I assume) provide hand-holding
service for people unsure of what they are doing. (*) They are also in a
position to give a new person something for their fee: some guarantee
of access to their time. 

  
Subject: I'm part of ocunix already, where do I refer new people?

  New people who need a connection (which you can't provide yourself)
should be referred to David Jones <dej@qpoint.ocunix.on.ca>. (Insert
phone number here?) David will be maintaining some map of who connects
to whom and how much capacity (vs redundancy) various parts of our net have.

Subject: What does Michael Richardson do?

  I am simply the postmaster of the Ocunix domain park. Ocunix is a
co-operative network that purchases network services from uunet.ca.

  That means that I run a bit of extra software to determine once and
for all if blah.ocunix.on.ca is a valid site. Someone has to do that
since everyone else just sends unknown ocunix.on.ca sites my way to
figure it out. 
  I accept map entries from members and try and produce a set of
maps to allow me to route any valid blah.ocunix.on.ca sites I should
see to the proper place. I periodically (%) post these maps to a local
newsgroup. 
  I also do a bit of worrying about our bill now and then, and a
couple of other sundry things. 

(%) the formula for determining when I next post is not unlike a
pseudo-random number generator and thus I claim it does have some kind
of period. 

Subject: I'm confused now. All you've said is what ocunix isn't. What
	do I get?

  1) You get an address of the form <yourid@yourhost.ocunix.on.ca>, and a
record that points that address at your machine. There is MX record on
the internet for *.ocunix.on.ca that points mail for us to
mail.uunet.ca. Ocunix purchases service from Uunet Canada and Uunet
Canada provides the MX service. The result is that anyone on the
Internet, or who can reach the internet can send you mail.
  2) You get premission to route any mail to the Internet (or beyond)
via ocunix's connection	to the Internet. 
 
Subject: What does it cost?

  For the 1992-1993 year (Sept - Sept) the basic fee is $35 per site.
Because not all sites are equal in size, if it is determined that your
site consumes too much bandwidth (``too much'' being a relative term.
In general, more than 2-3% of the volume) then we will take volume
data for a couple months for you and extrapolate a year's worth and
ask for that much money from you. 
  The extrapolations will be revised from time to time, usually when
the bank account threatens to become empty. 
  Dave Shaw is the treasurer and checks should be made to him. When
you join, we'll make arrangements for him to get the money.

Subject: Mailing lists and Newsgroups

  In order to cut costs on some mailing lists of general interest, we
gate them into a series of newsgroups. There are also some local
groups. Here is a list:

  Group name             Type     Moderation/Posting address
 ocunix.general           m        ocunix-general@ocunix.on.ca
 ocunix.mail.thinknet     n          - dead -
 ocunix.mail.space-tech   n        space-tech@cs.cmu.edu 
 ocunix.mail.sun-home     m        sun-at-home@orchestra.ecn.purdue.edu
 ocunix.mail.taylor-uucp  n        taylor-uucp@gnu.ai.mit.edu
 ocunix.mail.pubnet       n        pubnet@chinacat.unicom.com
 ocunix.mail.eff-news     n        not sure... Alayne?
 ocunix.mail.machm68k     n        machm68k@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au
 ocunix.mail.fire-walls   n          - not yet connected -
 ocunix.maps              y        Maps are posted here.
 ocunix.stats             y        Statistics are posted here.

  In order to make sure that people who aren't familliar with the
mailing list, or who don't realize it is a mailing list don't post
garbage to the list, most of the groups should be marked for no
posting. The above list tells you where to send your postings to. 
  Most of the groups will probably be moved over to moderated status
with automatic reverse gates.