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Whats a COW ?

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Peter Gradwell

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May 14, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/14/96
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Hi,

I've seen various references to COWs (the computer type, not milk type) and
know that COW stands for Centre of the World. BUT, what do they do ?

Any one care to tell me ?

Many thanks,

Peter Gradwell

--------------------------------------------------
Peter Gradwell. (Pe...@Gradwell.com)

Peter on the web - http://www.irds.org/peter/
Checkmail Home page http://www.irds.org/peter/checkmail.html
(Details of Checkmail updates and manual additions found there !)

Also check out http://dwilson.demon.co.uk.

Peter Galbavy

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May 15, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/15/96
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Peter Gradwell wrote:
> I've seen various references to COWs (the computer type, not milk type) and
> know that COW stands for Centre of the World. BUT, what do they do ?
>
> Any one care to tell me ?

In the Demon context it is "Centre Of the World" router. historically, when we
were small, there was the *one* Ethernet, and having a pair of redundant routers
at the middle (in the logical sense) worked. They were (and after many changes and
upgrades still are) called ermin and trude.

As the network grows to multiple sites and seemingly odd topologies (we have
calves too - small COWs) the need for a real middle bit have gone. One day, so
will ermin and trude.

One was of quantifying is that our COWs carry complete routeing tables, external
and internal, and the calves only carry internal routes. Internal routes still
number many thousands, and each dialup user gets a host route to the PoP they are
logged into or the nexthop gateway to that PoP.

regards,
--
Peter Galbavy pe...@demon.net
@ Demon Internet phone://44/181/371_3700
http://www.wonderland.org/~peter/
snail://UK/N3_1TT/London/42_Hendon_Lane/Demon_Internet_Ltd/

Matthew Thompson

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May 16, 1996, 3:00:00 AM5/16/96
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> I've seen various references to COWs (the computer type, not milk type) and
> know that COW stands for Centre of the World. BUT, what do they do ?

Oh, I thought that it was the description of a low end Gateway machine
<moo>

M@t :o)

-- Matthew Thompson - Actuality Web Services --------------------
actu...@dial.pipex.com using NETcetera II
mail: 1 priests field, ingrave, essex. cm13 3qj
tel: +44 (0) 1277 810163
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