*start*
01163 00024 US 
Date: 20 Jan 85 23:55:57 PST (Sunday)
From: JLarson.pa
Subject: Getting to Ernestine from Vaxc
To: VaxcUsers^.pa
cc: Woods, Borning, Pavel, VaxcSystem^.pa
Reply-To: VaxcSystem^.pa

Ernestine, Grapevine's Lily Terminal Service, is what is known as a Multi-Machine Service.  Several Lilys exist around the Research Internet.  When you "chat ern" at PARC, most systems here are smart enough to connect you to the GV socket (GV-Lily, 53) of PARC Lily server (Lily-PA), otherwise known as "Lily-PA+53" or "Lily-PA+GV-Lily". This sometimes provides usable external Grapevine mail service.  If Lily-PA is down, you are connected to some other Lily Server on the Research Internet, which will usually provide unusably poor response.

Unfortunately, the not-so-smart Vaxc will usually connect you to the first Ernestine server listed in the Pup database if you type "chat ern".  This is "MarechalFoch", a Lily server in Webster NY, which provides extremely poor response from Vaxc!

So for the moment, Ernestine users (in .PA) should: 
"chat lily-pa+53" or "chat lily-pa+gv-lily". 

We'll probably do something about this in the near future.

John