[2643] in Release_7.7_team
Re: Please strongly consider backing out the zephyr servers
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Garry Zacheiss)
Fri Mar 9 11:12:10 2001
Message-Id: <200103091612.LAA02008@riff-raff.mit.edu>
To: Jonathan McIndoe Hunt <jmhunt@MIT.EDU>
cc: Bill Cattey <wdc@MIT.EDU>, jis@MIT.EDU, Greg Hudson <ghudson@MIT.EDU>,
Garry Zacheiss <zacheiss@MIT.EDU>, azary@MIT.EDU,
John Hawkinson <jhawk@MIT.EDU>, release-team@MIT.EDU, op@MIT.EDU,
winzephyr-release@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 08 Mar 2001 19:10:54 EST."
<5.0.2.1.2.20010308185622.039a2798@hesiod>
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2001 11:12:04 -0500
From: Garry Zacheiss <zacheiss@MIT.EDU>
>> Is there a way to record who is connecting to the server from a
>> WinZephyr client that is not doing the right thing such that we can
>> send a directed communication to them to upgrade when we release the
>> fully supported version?
We can make an effort at this; the zephyr server keeps track of what
IP addresses it believes it has clients from. Using this list and
'zstat', we should be able to come up with an approximate list of
Windows machines that are running a zhm at that time.
I wouldn't want to do this frequently, though, and I am curious how
much thought the Software Release Team has put into tracking usage of
Windows and Macintosh packages that are released. Relying on
server-side tracking of connecting clients might not be sufficient in
all cases. Has thought been given to having the installer offer to add
the user to a list of registered users of the software, and either send
mail or add the user to a list using Webmoira, based on the answer to
the question? This would seem to me a reasonable straightforward and
good way of tracking users who are using released software and allowing
us to send them information affecting their use of the package in
question, without unduly violating the privacy of our users.
I will attempt to collect a list of machines believed to be running
Winzephyr from the zephyr servers sometime soon, although since it will
only get users who are currently subscribed, I don't expect it to be a
comprehensive list.
Would it be possible to get a copy of the current version of
Winzephyr that I may look at? I have access to the source for this
program, but don't particularly feel like a building a copy myself.
Garry
