Re: [cobalt-users] Be gentle with us

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ash wrote:

> The first is mp3 and real audio files. We can upload the mp3's/ra's to
> the server no problem. If we telnet into it, the files show up as being
> there. However, when a link on a webpage points to a file, it comes up
> with a File Not Found error.

Not sure...  I do know that you can't get real audio servers to work
with RaQ2s, but I don't think that's what you were asking.

> The second question is not so much of a problem but an enquiry. We would
> like to be able to offer our clients access to newsgroups, but none of
> us are really sure how to go about setting up such a service.

There doesn't seem to be a news daemon on the RaQ; nevertheless it
wouldn't be too hard to install one.

> Is it just software we need to install, do we need to register with
> major-domo,

Newsgroups are not mailing lists, and have nothing to do with
majordomo.  The first step to take is to buy the O'Reilly book (there I
go again) "Managing Usenet"; the numbers in it are about two years out
of date, but it's invaluable nevertheless.

> and would having newsgroups available on our server create
> enormous bandwidth (and take up lots of space) and slow all the
> websites we have hosted down considerably?

Probably.  Here's a recent quote from the Internet Access List:

>I posted almost this exact message about 3 weeks ago. Our Cidera stuff 
> > >starting
> > >showing up today.... they are pushing 600KB/second from their feed. We are 
> > >going
> > >to start with a PIII/450 with 384MB of RAM and three 47GB SCSI drives.
> > >
> > >They are claiming 60GB per day for a full feed (including binaries, etc.)

Do you still want news <smile>?

> i've seen someone mention Dnews software, but after looking into it i
> don't think it's really what we want as it seems to be a kind of
> 'proxy'

DNews, and other "proxies" as you call them, make it possible for you to
offer news, because they allow your servers to only ask for the groups
they need, instead of filling 3.5 T-1 lines taking the whole thing.  In
fact, <ibm.net> before they sold out to AT&T, was one of the largest
Internet providers worldwide, and they ran exclusively on DNews.  A
friend of mine was their news admin; believe me; it's a full-time job,
and then some.

> If anyone can help that'd be great. If no-one can, then it looks like
> it's more hours reading complicated books in the library again.....

I can help you.  At my regular hourly rate <wry grin>.  If you can't
consider that, then you can't consider the 4 T-1s you'll need, so you
might as well forget about it <smile>.

Most companies these days get skycache from Cidera; it gives you news
and caching, for only about $500/month.  Then all you need is about
$10,000 worth of server hardware.  Or buy a few news connections (they
run between $10 and $15/month per connection, and 20 of them will easily
handle a 1,000 customer ISP), and alias to them in DNS.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672
Riverside, CA  92517
voice: (909) 787-8589  *  fax: (909) 782-0205