Date   : Wed, 19 Aug 1987 02:26:31 GMT
From   : vijit!madsen@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (Dave Madsen)
Subject: Re: Access to SIMTEL20

In article <52@epistemi.UUCP>, rda@epistemi.UUCP (Robert Dale) writes:
> Twice in the last couple of days I've tried to get stuff from the PD
> archives on SIMTEL20, but each time my request gets bounced back with the
> error 
>   No such local mailbox as "ARCHIVE-REQUEST", recipient rejected
> UUCP:     ...!ukc!cstvax!epistemi!rda
> ARPA:     rda%epistemi.ed.ac.uk@ucl.cs
> JANET:    rda@uk.ac.ed.epistemi

I had the same problem.  I sent a message to Frank Wancho (Wancho@simtel20.arpa)
who sent the reply (dated Fri, 26 Jun 1987) reproduced below.
Please note that I do not know if this includes anonymous FTP as well.

Dave Madsen   ---dcm

ihnp4!vijit!madsen    or    gargoyle.uchicago.edu!vijit!madsen

Frank Wancho's reply:
"Several changes to the Archive Server have been made in the past few
weeks to improve service for replies sent through intermediate hosts.  
One of the requested changes was to reduce the size of the messages by
half so that these messages don't hog the single-stream mail
channels, particularly on BITNET, for extended periods of time, and
thus give other mail a chance to get through in a timely manner.

Unfortunately, this has resulted in the SIMTEL20 mail queue to rapidly
grow way beyond all expectations:  the Server was now generating twice
as many messages and our dedicated mailer for this service now had to
establish twice as many connections for the same number of replies.  
That mailer could not keep up with the queue, and for the second
time in as many weeks, we have had to shutdown the Server because we
were running out of disk space.  

Because the disk space is at a premium for our regular users, and
because the resources required by both the Server and the mailer have
now reached a point well beyond the capabilities of our present system
configuration, the Server has been shut down until further notice and
for an indefinite period of time.  New requests will be returned 
unanswered, and both present requests and replies will be flushed.  

In the meantime, we are examining other possibilities to provide
access to our collections.  Because the great majority of requests
have come from BITNET users, we are looking for one or more BITNET
hosts willing to provide the disk space and BITSERV facilities for one
or more of our collections of public domain software.

--Frank"