From: Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 21:56:48 +0800
To: cypherpunks@ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Subject: Re: List Subscriptions / Re: Prior Restraint on Publishers (fwd)
Message-ID: <199708251351.IAA00012@einstein.ssz.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text



Forwarded message:

> 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      |
   |____________________________________________________________________|