advantages of uucp over tcp/ip?

[richard.s.brown]

In article <12621 at chaph.usc.edu>, szeto at aludra.usc.edu (Johnny Szeto) writes:
> 
> 	Can someone give me an illustration what the advantages of
> uucp over tcp/ip are?  I come across all these commands like cu, uux,
> etc.  But why bother having them around if ftp and telnet are so much
> easier to use with a single internet address?

	I'll take a shot...

	The advantages of uucp over tcp/ip go something like this:

	1) UUCP queues jobs. If you want to copy a file (via 'rcp')
	   and the network happens to be down, you must try later.

	   If you want to run a remote execution (via rsh/remsh) and
	   the network is down, you must try again later.
	
	   UUCP queues the job and keeps trying until either the job
	   is complete or a time limit (several days) expires. We
	   actually run UUCP over TCP/IP for remote executions and
	   E-mail. (Yeah, I know, I don't need uucp for mail, but it
	   works well for us and I hate to fix something that isn't
	   broken.)

	2) UUCP is *CHEAP* to run. Just about any machine comes with
	   at leastl one extra RS-232 port. If I need to get to a machine
	   in Intercourse, PA and that machine does not have Internet
	   access, it's a lot easier (and cheaper) to get uucp set up
	   than to get TCP/IP set up.

	   This may comes as a shock to many people, but not all UNIX
	   machines have Internet access. Many machines at AT&T only
	   have UUCP access to the handful of machines with Internet
	   access.

	I hope this helps...

	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

	Rich Brown			{att!}vogon!rsb

	AT&T Network Systems			OR

	Lisle, IL			rsb at vogon.att.com