[fitsbits] fitsbits<-->sci.astro.fits gateway fully operational again

[Don Wells]

Dear Friends of FITS,

Mailing list <fitsbits at nrao.edu> was created in the late 1980s.
Usenet newsgroup sci.astro.fits was created in 1992.
A bi-directional gateway was established at NRAO to connect
the two services, so that postings to <fitsbits> would be posted to
sci.astro.fits, and postings to sci.astro.fits would be posted to 
<fitsbits>. 
This gateway service has been connecting two groups of people
in the FITS user community for most of the past 14 years.

In June 2005 the gateway at NRAO failed. In July 2005 service was partially
restored  via a connection to NOAO's Usenet news server (thanks NOAO!).
Transfer in the fitsbits-->sci.astro.fits direction (NRAO-->NOAO)  worked,
but transfer in the opposite direction, sci.astro.fits-->fitsbits, did 
not work.
Efforts to find the problem in 2005 and earlier in 2006 did not succeed,
and so for more than a year the gateway service was only uni-directional.

We were surprised earliier this month when two messages were posted to 
<fitsbits>
(09-06 "nom.tam.fits version 0.99.1" and 09-07 "FITS Library Package 
available"),
and we realized that they had originated in the sci.astro.fits newsgroup!
Currently we have no explanation for why the service began to function.
Earlier today, one of us posted two test messages; they demonstrated that
the gateway is fully operational again.

Regards,
Bill Pence and Don Wells (co-owners of <fitsbits>)


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