s-o-1036 June 1994

10.5. Gateway Administration

Any  news  system will benefit from an attentive administra-
tor, preferably assisted by automated monitoring for  anoma-
lies.  This is particularly true of gateways.  Gateway soft-
ware SHOULD be instrumented  so  that  unusual  occurrences,
such  as  sudden  massive  surges  in  traffic, are reported
promptly.  It is desirable, in fact, to go further:  gateway
software  SHOULD endeavour to limit damage in the event that
the administrator does not respond promptly.

     NOTE: For example, software might limit the  gate-
     waying  rate by queueing incoming traffic and emp-
     tying the queue at a  finite  maximum  rate  (well

INTERNET DRAFT to be        NEWS                   sec. 10.5


     below  the  maximum  that the host is capable of!)
     which is set  by  the  administrator  and  is  not
     raised automatically.

Traffic gatewayed into a news network SHOULD include a suit-
able  header,  perhaps  X-Gateway-Administrator,  giving  an
electronic  address  that  can  be  used to report problems.
This SHOULD be an address that goes direct to a  human,  not
to  a  "routine administrative issues" mailbox that is exam-
ined only occasionally, since the point is  to  be  able  to
reach  the  administrator  quickly in an emergency.  Gateway
administrators SHOULD arrange substitutes to  cover  gateway
operation  (with suitable redirection of mail) when they are
on vacation etc.