USENIX Board Studies UUCP

[Brad Templeton]

There are two debates to be done here.   One thing that I think should be
established is a Universal protocol for start of conversation.

Such that every computer that answers phone calls would talk this protocol
to start.  It would be used by fax machines, e-mail stations, file-transfer
stations etc.

This protocol would negotiate A) what kind of data is being
transmitted (fax, e-mail, news, file transfer, EDI invoice, login session
etc.) and what protocol will be used for transfer of that info.

Then it should drop to the commonly negotiated protocol.

You *could* even negotiate modem protocols here.  I always thought it
would be better if smart modems started at 300 bps or something, and
figured out what they were, then jumped to the higher speeds.  None of
this 'present 6 carriers in strange order until one works' stuff.

Then you get one phone number on the phone system for all data calls.  Or
on the ISDN network.
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473