[ih] Maps or lists of early UUCP nodes/networks in the Boston area?

[Bill Ricker]

While the tech/admin details in UUCP-MAP entries are valuable history (and
someone has saved 1987-1992 on GitHub https://github.com/encse/uucp-map
which extends the 1984 and 1985 entries available in netnews archives),
there were also text-as-graphics logical, graphical maps of the network,
usually described as "Usenet maps" (because they were more end-user
oriented than the point-to-point transport & management details of
UUCP-MAP, even tho' they described (usually) Mail, News, and File flows).

Two useful collections (there likely are more?) are

https://stargatemuseum.org/maps/

https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/m.dodge/cybergeography/atlas/historical.html
(scroll or FIND past Arpanet maps to "USENET in 1981"

// bill in boston, this time NOT speaking for the Literary Estate of MAP

On Mon, May 11, 2026 at 3:52 PM Dan York via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Greg,
>
> Thanks for the detective work! Comments inline…
>
> On May 11, 2026, at 2:06 PM, Greg Skinner <gregskinner0 at icloud.com> wrote:
>
> I was able to find several entries for ’srbci’ with the Google Groups
> query https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mail.maps/search?q=srbci.
>
> 🤦‍♂️ Brilliant! Of course that would be a logical way to search!
>
> From the looks of several of these entries, such as the following, ‘mv’
> was a UUCP neighbor of ’srbci’.
>
> Yes, my recollection is that it was our *only* neighbor. Everything we
> sent/received went through mv.
>
> This part…
>
> # Outgoing calls:
> mv decvax(DIRECT+HIGH), ditka(EVENING+FAST), harvard(EVENING+FAST),
> jjmhome(EVENING)
> #
> # Incoming calls:
> mv balrog(DAILY),
> contek(POLLED), <critz>(DIRECT+FAST), ctedge(DIRECT),
> <eci>(DIRECT), <goldfnch>(WEEKLY), <helmers>(DIRECT),
> <jlc>(DIRECT), lemuria(DIRECT+FAST), <loiosh>(DIRECT),
> midnight(DAILY+FAST), <molly-bloom>(DIRECT),
> <objects>(DAILY), <pondsquid>(DIRECT),
> <pulsar>(DIRECT), <pophyn>(DIRECT), <rr>(WEEKLY/2),
> <siia>(DIRECT), <srbci>(DIRECT),
> <summa4>(DIRECT), <three>(WEEKLY+FAST),
> <trashbin>(DIRECT), <vauto>(DIRECT), <verbal1>(DIRECT),
> <virgin>(EVENING+FAST), <wgc386>(DIRECT), <wtfm>(DIRECT),
> <zinn>(DIRECT)
> #
> # Misc reverse definitions:
> harvard mv(EVENING)
> decvax mv(DIRECT+HIGH)
>
> … makes me think that perhaps my memory of the “mit” part of the bang-path
> may be faulty.  I might have had the “vax” part right but the owner wrong.
> Perhaps the address was “decvax!mv!srbci!ldy”.
>
> 'mit-vax' could have been an undocumented UUCP neighbor of ‘mv’.  It
> appears on USENET maps from the 1980s available by issuing a similar Google
> Groups query in net.news.map.
>
> It could have been. It also could be a complete fabrication of my brain
> 30+ years later.
>
> This conversation also reminds me that what I really should is simply
> reach out to Mark Mallett, who used to run MV Communications, and ask him!
> 💡I do have some contact info for him.
>
> Many thanks, Greg!
>
> Dan
>
>
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-- 
Bill Ricker
bill.n1vux at gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/n1vux