Re: Extended RETR - version 2

On Mon, 28 Feb 2000, Mike Gahrns wrote:

> Re: Extended RETR - version 2>> Not necessarily.  I think a strong case can
> be made that while the volume
> >> may increase, the quality is also increasing as well.  As I mentioned
> >> earlier, I have no objections to this extension from a technical point of
> >> view, just pointing out that before we extend POP, lets make sure that we
> >> are solving a real problem.  A large part of POP's success is due to its
> > >simplicity.
> >Exactly what are you referring to by "quality", please specify.
> >// Anders
> *** Sorry for the delay in responding. I did not have email access last
> week...
> This comment was in regards to a previous statement that the number of line
> errors that occur and cause a message to be RETR'd again will only increase,
> as the use of the internet continues to grow beyond everybody's
> expectations.   The point I was trying to make was that although volume will
> no doubt increase, the quality of the lines/connections is also increasing.
> I would bet that in most of the world today, the quality of the connection
> is at a point where line quality is a non-issue, and for those parts of the
> world where line quality is still an issue, I would suspect that quality
> will rapidly improve.

It has a long way to go. I'm just between silicon valley and San
Francisco, one of the most wired parts of the world. I'm only 2.5 miles
from my local PacBell switch.

While I wait for DSL I'm using AOLs dialup pool. I regularly get
connection drops. Whether that's due to faulty equipment at AOL or whether
it's due to genuine line-quality issues doesn't really matter to me as an
end-user. As higher bandwidth connectivity rolls into an area the POTS
providers are pushed down market and the quality of service drops (at the
low end of the dialup market, anyway).

Dialup isn't particularly reliable in general right now. Were I trying to
download megabyte+ mails via POP3 I'd be retrying after connection drop
fairly often.

Cheers,
  Steve