Re: setting up mirrors

[Atul Chitnis <achitnis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

[Ignoring Suresh "MalletHead"'s personal attacks completely, since they
have nothing to do with this discussion]

Ruchir:

> What exactly are you trying to say. If anybody decides to host
> a server, they are doing you a service. Why and how would they
> themselves misuse it ?

OK, let me give you an example:

Let's say someone sponsors a colocated server at VSNL.

[Aside - someone mentioned "costs" - it costs just 2 lakhs a year to
colocate at VSNL with a really fat pipe backing it, while it costs 4.25
lakhs a year plus about 4 lakhs of equipment to set up a miserable 64k
leased line - which seems the easier/cheaper/more_effective thing to do?]

Let's say that the person who runs the server and the site is called "X".

Now, X has at his disposal a huge resource - one that very few people can
afford. X makes sure that the mirror is updated [another aside - *one*
mirror for all of India????] and functions properly.

Now X belongs to ILUG Timbuktoo. ILUG-T itself has nothing to do with the
functioning of the resource, but that doesn't change the fact that X is a
member of ILUG-T.

After a while, several ILUGs start muttering and complaining. "Why does
ILUG-T have control over this national resource? Is ILUG-T all of Linux
India? We too should have control over this resource."

Fair enough. So it is decided that every ILUG will have an
elected/nominated representative sysadmin working along with X to maintain
the server.

Now, we have dozens of ILUGs......

At some point, the finger-pointing starts. "X is downloading MP3s for
himself!" "Y is providing email addresses to his friends on that server!"
"Z has started a break-away LUG in his city and *also* wants to have
access".

This in itself is not misuse - it is implied misuse. OK, so we need to
form a committee to supervise the functioning of the resource. Naturally,
the committee needs to have elected/nominated members, which is another
ball of wool....

Ho hum - welcome to the world of LI politics.

Feel free to disagree with me - I am just speaking from experience.

Atul

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