Using a UUCP host for SMTP e-mail to a SMBX

[David Gadbois <gadbois@MCC.COM>]

    Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1992 09:34 CDT
    From: Paul Pangaro <pan@ATHENA.PANGARO.dialnet.symbolics.com>

    I am considering subscribing to a commercial firm for connection to
    Internet. I don't want to give up the luxury of my mail arriving at
    my Symbolics on its own.  They offer "UUCP" connections --- is this
    what I want? Anyone have any experience on this? I know nothing
    except about DIALnet on the SMBX side. Many thanks.

    FYI: the companies I know of are Performance Systems International
    and UUNET.

As Barmar noted, you don't want a UUCP connection unless you can find or
write a UUCP package for Genera.  Also, UUCP only gives you mail and
rudimentary file transfer capability.  All the service providers (UUNET,
PSI, ANS, and maybe CERFnet) do offer other possibilities for
connection, though.

I have been following this stuff closely in the hopes that prices will
come down enough that I can justify getting a real Internet connection
at home.  Basically, there are two possibilities for getting direct
access on the cheap.  Note that this is all daydreaming on my part and
may or may not have any connection with reality.

The first (and higher class) is getting a leased line to one of the
service providers.  It involves paying for the leased line and buying or
leasing the line driver.  This approach has the advantage of higher
bandwidth (56 Kb/s up to whatever you can afford) and very little work
on the lispm side -- you just buy a box that connects to the line driver
on one side and to your ethernet on the other.  I seen prices for this
kind of service as low as $50 to $300 per month, plus the cost of the
leased line (which may be *really* expensive) and the glue equipment.

The other approach is dialup access using SLIP (serial-line Internet
Protocol) or PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol).  This has the advantage of
using a much cheaper POTS (Plain-Old Telephone Service) line.  The only
equipment you would need is a speedy modem, which can be had for about
$300 these days.  I have seen connection costs (PSI, I think) as cheap
as $36 a month.  The big problem with this approach is the software on
the lispm side -- I don't know of any SLIP or PPP implementations
available, and writing one would involve getting into some deep and dark
places in Genera.  It may be easier to just buy a UNIX box (you can get
used Sun 3s for well under $1,000) and run one of the freeware SLIP
implementations on it.

Note that hooking up to "The Internet" doesn't mean you can connect with
everybody on it.  There are a bunch of squabbles going on now as to what
kind of traffic is permitted over what parts of the Internet, the
current result of which is that not everyone has universal connectivity.
(For example, I can't get into some of the commercial networks like
world.std.com from here.)

You might also check into hooking directly into your regional network
via either of the two methods above.  (I'm not sure which regional
covers the DC area, but any network guru there should know.)  Whether
you can do this depends on how gung-ho your regional is for small-time
connectivity and whether you have politically correct traffic 

Also:  I think you had mentioned that you are "downsizing" (literally!)
to 3620s.  20s do not come with serial ports on the processor box, and I
have had nothing but grief trying to use the serial port on the console.
I would not recommend trying to hook up a modem to the console port.

--David Gadbois