One of the requirements for registering a UUCP host in sbay.org is to send in your UUCP map entry. We understand that it's a challenge if you don't already have a map entry for your system. Hopefully this will help.
(UUCP maps are the input files for the pathalias program, which we use in the process of automatic DNS mail-exchanger record updates. We intend to replace UUCP Maps with XML for registration in the future.)
We'll first look at a sample map and then discuss the formatting requirements. First, an example that has everything: (This is a very old map from 1994. The location, numbers, and most of the links are out of date. It is here only to demonstrate the format.)
#N thunder #S 486DX2/66 clone, Linux 1.x #O sbay.org - South Bay/Silicon Valley Community Network #C Ian Kluft #E postmaster@thunder.sbay.org #T +1 408 246-1250 #P 2200 Monroe Street 1509, Santa Clara CA 95050-3452 #L 37 21 20 N / 121 57 30 W #W ikluft@thunder.sbay.org (Ian Kluft); Tue Aug 30 14:40:05 PDT 1994 #F amdahl.com, zygot.ati.com, hip-hop.hh.sbay.org #U amdahl # # link costs used in this map: # LOCAL ethernet # DIRECT+FAST+HIGH 14.4K UUCP, polled, called on-demand, they poll me # DIRECT+FAST 14.4K UUCP, polled, they poll me # DIRECT+FAST+LOW 14.4K UUCP, they poll me # # local network is kluft.com thunder =kluft.com, thunder.kluft.com thunder .kluft.com(LOCAL) # snap is my 386 box thunder snap(LOCAL) # # coordination site for the South Bay Area network # ** sbay.org is a community network open to the public to join # ** sbay.net is a subcommunity for Internet BBS's and small network providers # ** sbay.com is a subcommunity for small commercial sites thunder =sbay.org, sbay.com, sbay.net thunder =nic.sbay.org, nic.sbay.com, nic.sbay.net thunder =thunder.sbay.org, thunder.sbay.com, thunder.sbay.net thunder hip-hop(DIRECT+FAST+HIGH), grafex(DIRECT+FAST) thunder howdy(DIRECT+FAST+LOW), subzero(DIRECT+FAST+LOW) thunder cougar(DIRECT+FAST+LOW) # # wile.sbay.org = The Tech Museum of Innovation # solis.sbay.org = Sheriff's Online Information System (Santa Clara County) thunder wile(DIRECT+FAST), solis(DIRECT+FAST+LOW) # # other sbay machines may be more than one hop away but this site has # the domain's full routing database so we can deliver to them indirectly thunder .sbay.org, .sbay.com, .sbay.net # # links to the Internet thunder amdahl(DIRECT+FAST+HIGH), zygot(DIRECT+FAST+HIGH)Now, an example that is more like what first-time sites will look like, just a single private machine connected to a single hub site.
#N cheese #S Intel 386; Waffle UUCP 1.65 #O The Nebuolic Cheese BBS #C Stephen Lau #E hacker@mookie.sbay.org #T +1 415 XXX XXXX [omitted from this example - include your number here] #P [omitted from this example - include your address here] #L 39 21 N / 121 57 W City Los Altos #R The Nebuolic Cheese BBS [4i5].949.1788 Home of OmniNet! #U mookie #W hacker@mookie.sbay.org (Stephen Lau); Wed, 11 May 94 19:12:32 PST # cheese = cheese.sbay.org cheese mookie(DIRECT+FAST)There are two sections to the map entry. The site information and the pathalias routing data.
There should not be any blank lines in your map if you intend to submit it to the world UUCP map coordinators. Actually, it is strongly recommended that you use '#' for blank lines anyway but they won't hurt your sbay.org registration.
The lines in this section have the following meanings:
The catch is that it has to be unique - you can't use a name that's already taken in sbay.org. (If you also want to register with the UUCP mapping project, you can't use a name anyone else in the world has registered.)
The UUCP mapping project coordinators will also allow fully-qualified names
like thunder.sbay.org. At this point, sbay.org's map-automation software
can't handle that. Contact me (ikluft@thunder.sbay.org) if you want to do
that and give me time to rewrite the software.
#F name of site's Internet mail forwarder
If you have a UUCP link to a system which is on the Internet and they are
willing to forward all your mail for you, you should put their name here.
Otherwise you can leave out the #F entry.
#S manufacturer machine model; operating system & version
This should be mostly self explanatory. Enter your machine's hardware model
and OS version here. If you run MS-DOS or a compatible OS, you should state
both DOS and your UUCP transport software (i.e. Waffle, UUPC) versions.
#O organization name
Either enter the name of your organization or "a private system".
If your machine is a bulletin board system, be sure to put the abbreviation
"BBS" in the name so people know you're not just a private residential
machine. (updated 5/94)
#C contact person's name
Enter your name in this entry. This will be used by software at sbay.org to
make a list of site admins for the network. Please do not omit it.
#E contact person's electronic mail address
Enter your e-mail address in this entry. If you don't already have another
domain address, use xxx@yoursite.sbay.org where "xxx" is root, system, usenet,
postmaster, or your own account, wherever you want to receive mail about your
map. Of course, "yoursite" should be replaced with your site's name.
This will be used by software at sbay.org to make a mail list of site admins
for the network. Please do not omit it.
#T contact person's telephone number
Enter your VOICE phone number here, including the international calling prefix.
(Use +1 for US/Canada.)
The reason we need a voice phone number is in case your system is not
reachable electronically. There needs to be a way to ask you about it
if mail is waiting for you.
#P organization's address
Enter your postal address here.
#L latitude / longitude
This is probably the only one that will take any significant amount of time.
The latitude and longitude are used by software that draws maps of the UUCP
network. Sbay.org doesn't have any right now but it is hoped to add it in
the future. So please don't omit this entry.
The best source of latitude and longitude is a USGS map. They are available from the USGS in Menlo Park and often from other closer sources. You may be able to get some numbers that are "close enough" from aviation charts. In this area, find anyone with a San Francisco Class B Airspace chart.
If those aren't available, you're going to have less accurate numbers but they will work. Please try to avoid these because we'd like to be able to use software to draw a map of the South Bay network at some time in the future.
You can specify the location of your city center, but you need to specify the word "city" after your location, in order to show its inaccuracy. Conversely, use the tag "GPS" if you measured your location with a Global Positioning System receiver, to indicate its high accuracy since this is effectively measuring it via satellite.
For the South Bay, the following distances apply to latitude and longitude:
degree minute second latitude 69.2 miles 1.15 miles 102 feet longitude 55.0 miles 0.91 miles 81 feetThe distances for degrees of longitude vary from the same as latitude at the equator to zero at the poles. (The units here are statute miles, 5280 feet. 1 minute of latitude = 1 nautical mile = 6072 feet, but we're not using nautical miles here.)
If you can, use a street map and compute your relative location North/South (latitude) and East/West (longitude) of any of the South Bay & vicinity landmarks shown below. Make sure to orient your computation with the "true north" arrow on your map.
thetech.org (Downtown San Jose) 37 19 51.5 N / 121 53 21.4 W GPS birdsong.sbay.org (Sunnyvale) 37 20 8 N / 122 1 4 W grafex.sbay.org (West San Jose) 37 18 22 N / 122 01 52 W thunder.sbay.org (Santa Clara) 37 21 20 N / 121 57 30 W Boulder Creek (city) 37 07 N / 122 07 W city Campbell (city) 37 22 N / 121 58 W city Fremont (city) 37 33 N / 121 59 W city Milpitas (city) 37 21 N / 121 57 W city San Jose (city) 37 21 N / 121 54 W city Santa Clara (city) 37 20 N / 121 57 W city Sunnyvale (city) 37 17 N / 122 24 W city Hayward Airport (HWD) 37 39 30 N / 122 07 00 W airport HWD Livermore Airport (LVK) 37 41 30 N / 121 49 30 W airport LVK Moffett Federal Airport (NUQ) 37 25 00 N / 122 02 30 W airport NUQ Palo Alto Airport (PAO) 37 27 30 N / 122 06 45 W airport PAO Reid-Hillview Airport (RHV) 37 19 45 N / 121 49 25 W airport RHV San Carlos Airport (SQL) 37 30 30 N / 122 14 45 W airport SQL San Jose International Airport (SJC) 37 21 42 N / 121 55 36 W airport SJC San Martin/South County Airport (Q99) 37 05 N / 121 36 W airport Q99 Watsonville Airport (WVI) 36 56 N / 121 47 W airport WVIAirport coordinates were obtained from the Pilot's Guide to California Airports (Q99/WVI, +/-30 seconds), San Francisco Class B Airspace Chart (HWD/LVK/NUQ/PAO/RHV/SQL, +/-15 seconds), and the San Jose Jet Center info sheet (SJC, +/-6 seconds). City landmarks are assumed +/-30 seconds. Sbay.org site coordinates shown above are probably +/-5 seconds or better.
Note for Fremont residents: the Fremont city coordinates above are an estimate
of the geographic center of the city. One person who asked the Fremont
Planning Dept for latitude & longitude got numbers which are actually in
Southern California near Ontario!
#R remarks
If you have any special notes about your site, you may enter them here.
Otherwise, you can omit the #R line.
#U netnews neighbors (list of your news feeds)
If you have NetNews, list all the machines with which you exchange news.
Otherwise, you can omit the #U line.
#W who last edited the entry ; date edited
You should update this *every* time you change your map. It should contain
your name, e-mail address, and the date/time of the change.
Pathalias Routing Data
Example:
thunder = thunder.sbay.org thunder hip-hop(DIRECT+FAST), grafex(DIRECT+FAST)The "from" field is, for purposes of your map, always the name of your own system. The links consist of a system you contact and, in parentheses, an estimated "cost" of the link.
The first example is actually an alias, another name for the same system. You should have an alias for every name your system recognizes as itself in e-mail. (Well, all the names that you think are important enough to publicize.)
The second example shows two neighbor systems which, as we will see in a moment, are local calls. You don't have to list all your UUCP neighbors, just the ones you want to publicize. You can also list any e-mail domains you can forward mail for. For example, if you list a route to a domain called ".mydomain.sbay.org", mail for mysystem.mydomain.sbay.org will be routed to you.
The cost is an important item. The pathalias program will put together all the maps with their links and costs. Then it will compute the lowest cost route to each system. Link costs need to be comparable to the speed of the line and the cost of the call in order for reasonable paths to be generated by pathalias.
The cost may be an arithmetic expression using the following values:
LOCAL 25 (local-area network connection) DEDICATED 95 (high speed dedicated link) DIRECT 200 (toll-free or local call) DEMAND 300 (immediate long-distance call) HOURLY 500 (hourly long-distance poll) EVENING 1800 (time restricted call) DAILY 5000 (daily poll, also called POLLED) WEEKLY 30000 (irregular poll) DEAD infinite (a system or link which is down)Also...
HIGH -5 (used to add a slight preference to a link)
LOW +5 (used to add a slight penalty to a link)
FAST -80 (used to indicate 9600 baud or faster links
for DIRECT or higher cost links)
If a cost is not specified, pathalias will use a default of 4000.
Multiplication usually is not very useful. Just pick one of the
main numbers and, if necessary, add or subtract HIGH/LOW/FAST.
Since there are many misunderstandings of how to set up costs, here are some guidelines. (updated 1/2000)
Here are some other routing guidelines for sbay.org: