[mythtv-users] Mooting architecture for a DataDirect replacement

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 12:30:02PM -0400, Rod Smith wrote:
> On Monday 25 June 2007 11:57, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 10:48:24AM -0400, Rod Smith wrote:
> >
> > > It could be easier to just maintain a separate server (HTTP, FTP, NNTP,
> > > or whatever) that's open to all but intended only for retrieving missing
> > > posts.
> >
> > Well, I think that's inherent in commercial NNTP service, no?  There's
> > a fixed event horizon: people only schedule out 2 or 3 weeks, and
> > postings hard-expire 6 hours after airtime, or less.  I don't think the
> > traffic load would be too painful for supernews.
> 
> Yes, but this particular sub-issue is about missing posts. If John
> Doe's ISP's NNTP server is missing the post that holds Tuesday's
> data for his local NBC station, he'll need somewhere to get it. John
> could of course subscribe to SuperNews as his primary NNTP server,
> but to protect against the occasional lost post, another solution is
> necessary, or at least desirable.

Got it.

> OTOH, I just Googled on "free Usenet servers" and got quite a few
> hits -- it seems there are still quite a few free Usenet servers
> out there. If the community took steps to ensure that a couple of
> them have reliable postings, the reliability problem would go away;
> these servers could automatically be polled in case a missing post is
> discovered, and people without NNTP provided by their ISPs could use
> such a server as a primary.

Indeed.  And since the posting client can be reliable: it can post to
two servers and then confirm that both have the posting...

> It might also be possible to contract with SuperNews (or similar big
> news server operators) to provide public access to just the desired
> newsgroup hierarchy for a reasonable fee.

Sure.  Course, they're not all that pricey to begin with, are they?

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
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