[DECtalk] DECtalk Archive currently unavailable

[Jayson Smith]

Hello,

     I'm sorry it has come to this... As some of you know, I was forced to 
switch from running my own server to using a hosting provider. This 
provider, openhosting.com, meters bandwidth. So far this month, I have had 
unusually high bandwidth utilization, and estimates are that my charges will 
exceed my commit rate by at least a few dollars. Looking at website 
statistics, it's clear to see that the DECtalk archive is accounting for an 
extremely high percentage of web traffic and/or bandwidth utilization. I 
always had my mind made up that I would host the DECtalk archive as long as 
it didn't actually cost anything. Now however, it might actually cost extra 
money to run the archive. For this reason, and in an attempt to keep the 
charges from going over my monthly commit rate, I have moved the archive to 
an area of my server inaccessible to the public either via FTP or HTTP, 
effective immediately. Please note, though, that nothing has been deleted 
from my server, only moved out of public access areas.
     I have a feeling that some person or persons, probably outside this 
list, are running poorly written or misconfigured mirroring programs. They 
seem to be downloading the same files over and over and over again. I am 
willing to work with anybody who wishes to host the archive, and at this 
point, I would be willing to turn it over to somebody else full-time. If 
anybody is interested, please step forward and we'll work something out. 
It's been a great run, since I more or less took the archive over by default 
in August of 2005. However, I am no longer willing to support the humongous 
bandwidth hog the archive has become. Note however, that I will continue to 
run this mailing list for as long as anybody wants. This list is a very 
low-bandwidth affair as compared to the archive.
     If anyone has any thoughts, please share them. I will not delete my 
copy of the archive, and will cooperate fully in making it available to 
anyone who wishes to take it over.
Thanks for your understanding.
Jayson